Tampa Mayor Jane Castor asked for a 1% millage increase to 7.2076, which would’ve led to an estimated roughly 16% increase in taxe Credit: Photo via Grindstone Media Grp/Adobe

After about eight hours of discussion, Tampa City Council voted 4-3 to keep Tampa’s millage rate at 6.2076% next year.

The net zero increase comes after Mayor Jane Castor first presented the FY2024 budget on Aug. 3. Castor asked for a 1% increase to 7.2076, which would’ve led to an estimated roughly 16% increase in taxes for Tampa property owners (others have estimated the increase as much higher). The City of Tampa’s Chief Financial Officer Dennis Rogero says the increase would cost the average Tampa homeowner only $240 annually.

There is some support for the increase, but many in the public oppose the increase. In the runup to Tuesday’s budget vote and in public comment, those opposed noted inflation, higher property taxes, insurance hikes make it difficult to consider raising taxes.

Chambers were full for the meeting, with an additional 100 people that waited downstairs to speak. Over 1,000 people streamed the meeting online. Council members say they’ve gotten thousands of emails, mostly against the tax increase.

“The emails were overwhelmingly against the mil increase,” Hurtak said at the meeting. “The small handful in support, all championed housing.”

Many in attendance on Tuesday night wore red ribbons signifying their support of funds allocated for housing. Residents from Belmont Heights and Jackson Heights asked that their communities not be forgotten as the housing crisis rages on.

“The top priority to me is housing whether you raise the millage or not,” Robin Lockett, Tampa resident and regional director for Florida Rising, said at the meeting. “You pimp our community. You go to these apartments. Black people are calling and crying their hearts to you. You come here and vote a different way, support housing.”

On Aug. 24, council member Bill Carlson motioned for Rogero to provide council with a FY2024 budget without the millage increase. That motion passed 6-1, with council member Gwen Henderson opposed. Rogero wrote a memorandum in response to council last week that basically said he and staff weren’t going to do that.

In the memo to staff, Rogero wrote, “In order to provide a Revised Proposed FY2024 Budget that eliminates the above millage increase, the Mayor would have to unilaterally, and without any transparency, reduce expenditures in the FY2024 Proposed Budget without input from City Council and the public about which items should be cut.”

Rogero continued, “Not only would that be inconsistent with Section 7.02 of the Charter, which expressly authorizes Council to make changes to the budget submitted by the Mayor, but it would be inconsistent with the collaborative process by which budgets have historically been developed and revised, and which we anticipated would occur in the FY2024 budget approval process.”

That means city council has roughly two weeks to comb through the budget for cuts.

Eventually, there was a motion to reject the tax increase proposed by the mayor. Councilmembers Luis Viera, Gwen Henderson, and Alan Clendenin voted against the motion.

Councilman Viera did, at one point in the meeting, pitch reducing the millage increase to just 0.3%, and called attention to the city’s need for new fire stations and other public safety issues, but his motion was shot down.

In an email to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Viera wrote to make clear that he was opposed to the mayor’s proposed proposed tax increase.

“I had long said I opposed that tax or anything near it due to inflation, runaway local costs for families, etc. I asked the Chairman to motion for that and it passed 6-1 to kill the full mileage increase with me voting yes,” Viera wrote.

After Tuesday night, the approved millage rate can be reduced but it can’t increase. Council could, but probably won’t, use the rollback millage rate of 5.8%, which is as low as the millage can go.

“Tampa residents have trusted me to ensure their tax dollars being spent wisely,” Hurtak told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I look forward to approving a budget that puts our city on the path to a sustainable future.”

The city is holding a special budget workshop on Sept. 13 at 3 p.m., to go over possible cuts with the public, staff and council. Public comment will only be taken at the beginning of that meeting and the very long budget is tampa.gov. The second and final budget hearing is Sept. 19 at 5 p.m.

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