$48.8M budget boosts money for parks, senior transportation

Village’s employees also will get 3.5% raise; tax rate stays unchanged.

ROYAL PALM BEACH — More money for parks and senior transportation is part of the $48.8 million budget passed for the coming year by Royal Palm Beach.

The Village Council unanimously approved the 2018 budget and tax rate at its meeting Thurs- day night, which was rescheduled because of Hurricane Irma.

Royal Palm Beach’s tax rate remains steady for next year at $1.92 for every $1,000 of assessed value, but residents will see a slight increase on their tax bills because of a more than 7 percent rise in property values in the village. A re sident with a homesteaded property valued at $203,000 will see $294 on their tax bill, while a property worth $262,000 with a homestead exemption will owe $407 in taxes.

The budget includes nearly $5 million — some of which carries over from this year — for parks, including the construction of a new amphitheater and more restrooms at Royal Palm Beach Commons, and improvements to the lighting at Veterans’ Park.

Also in the budget is $45,000 for a senior transportation program that officials envision as a partnership with a service such as Uber, where seniors will be able to sign up to receive subsidized rides for doctor’s appointments or grocery shopping.

Each village employee will receive a 3.5 percent rai se in 2018, and the budget also includes money for t wo new part-time interns to help with administration and engineering.

The budget features a 2 percent rise in Royal Palm Beach’s contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office, a standard, across-the-board increase for all municipalities served by the Sheriff ’s Office.

For the second year, Royal Palm Beach will receive money from the county’s 1-cent sales tax: more than $1.1 million. The village also has more than $1.4 million in sales tax money from this year that it is rolling over to 2018, making it able to complete road and parks projects. That includes $300,000 to replace some of the village’s aging playgrounds, $250,000 to make improvements at the Commons Sporting Center, $60,000 to refurbish and repaint some of the buildings at Veterans’ Park, and $950,000 to build a second RV and boat parking facility just

north of the intersection of Lamstein Lane and Southern Boulevard.

I n ot her busi ne s s , Vi l - lage Manager Ray Liggins told the Village Council on Thursday night that debris removal trucks have made a first trip through most of Royal Palm Beach.

More than 13,000 cubic yards of vegetation from Hurricane Irma have been picked up from about 70 percent of the village, Liggins said, with about 400 truckloads of debris taken to the Solid Waste Authority.

“Everything is working very well,” Liggins said.