Oakland Park to further cut tax rate, but bills will rise

For the fourth year, the city of Oakland Park is cutting back its property tax rate. But it’s not enough to offset a healthy rise in property values. The result will be slightly higher tax bills.

The city proposes a $105.4 million spending plan to support enhancements to parks, the watersewer system, roadways, and, the city hopes, its image.

Oakland Park has been working on rebranding itself to a cool, walkable place with superb culinary options, city officials outlined in budget memos. The city hopes its improvements, including nicely landscaped roadways, will help attract investment fromhigher end developers. A city of unremarkable strip malls, vacant spots, industrial eyesores and nude dance clubs continues to move beyond that, city officials said Wednesday.

“We’ve got a very aggressive plan,” Commissioner Tim Lonergan said. “We’re investing in the city to improve our quality of life and help put Oakland Park on the map.”

The City Commission on Wednesday night set a tentative tax rate and reviewed a potential $105.4 million spending plan for the central Broward city of 44,000 people, west of U.S. 1 and north ofWiltonManors.

City Manager David Hebert called the budget a “fiscally conservative plan” that leaves money set aside in case ofemergency. No additional employees will be added, maintaining a workforce of 297.

The city’s $54.7 million general fund, the portion of the budget that pays for general services, is slated to increase 10.3 percent over last year’s. About half of it is devoted to policing and firerescue expenses.

Some items in the proposed budget: improvements to Andrews Avenue, Main Street, Oakland Park Boulevard, Northeast Sixth Avenue and Powerline Road; vehicles and equipment for the fire department, including ballistic vestsandhelmets; newpublic safety radios compatible with the regional 911system; new neighborhood entry monuments; and parks projects. Additional spending also is expected for public safety employee pensions and employee health insurance.

The city will spend $19.6 million on major capital projects, including $12 million in water-sewer work, and $5.5 million in projects to improve mobility and streetscapes.

The proposed tax rate, set by commissioners Wednesday, is about $6.10 for every $1,000 of taxable property value.

For the owner of a $150,000 house that grew in value this year by the average 9.4 percent, the increase in the city portion of the property tax bill would be about $77, and the city portion of the tax bill would total $1,001.

For the owner of a $150,000 house that’s a primary residence and protected by state homestead laws, the value would increase only 2.1 percent, and $50,000 in value would be exempt from taxation. The increase would be about $14, and the city portion of the tax bill $629.

The city portion of the property tax bill, which also includes a tax to repay city debt, is about 30 percent of the total. Thecounty, school board, hospital district and other entities make up the rest.

Two fees on the property tax bill, the firefighting and stormwater assessments, will not go up this year. The fire assessment will remain at $199. The stormwater assessment for drainage and flooding prevention will remain at $84.

A third fee that appears ontax bills for OaklandPark homeowners, the annual solid waste fee, is recommended to rise $12 to $217.

The city’s property values still haven’t fully returned to the pre-recessionary high of 10 years ago. In 2007, the city’s values totaled $3.5 billion, and plunged over the following five years. Values began to increase again in 2012. The latest figures show a $2.9 billion total, city financial services Director Andrew Thompson advised in a budget memo.

As values grew, the city reduced its tax rate to offset the increase in taxes. The proposed rate this year is an 8.4 percent increase over a rate that would result in no higher taxes, according to Thompson. It would generate $1.3 million more in property tax revenue.

At public hearings on Sept. 6, Sept. 13 and Sept. 19, the proposed budget, tax rate and fees will be finalized.