Campaign promises, budget realities collide

Now comes the time for the three newest members of the Bonita Springs City Council to face the test given to every newly elected official.

They must fulfill their campaign promises.

Along with council term limits and road construction, one of the big issues among voters at the polls in this year’s election was the city’s tax rate.

Two of the three new council members campaigned on the promise of lower taxes while the third urged stricter fiscal responsibility.

Bonita Springs has begun the budget process for its next fiscal year, the time when the council must decide the tax rate and how much the city wants to spend.

“I’m going to scrutinize carefully any increases in the budget,” said Councilman Pat McCourt, whose main campaign message was smaller government and lower taxes.

City department leaders have begun submitting their budget requests to City Manager Gary Price, who will evaluate and combine them into a proposal for the council’s first budget workshop July 20.

“There are some places we can cut the budget,” said Councilwoman Martha Simons, who campaigned in part on a platform of lower taxes. “We need to take some time and realize how much people are already paying out.”

The ad valorem property tax raised $7.072 million and accounted for 23.7 percent of Bonita Springs’ total budget. It is the only tax the council assesses on residents and is the second largest source of revenue for the city, behind impact fees.

From 2000 to 2006, the previous council members, who were labeled fiscally irresponsible by their opponents during the campaign, lowered the tax rate twice. This year’s tax rate is 0.9976, or 99.8 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. That figure is lower than the rate paid by residents in unincorporated Lee County.

Even though the council lowered the tax rate twice, hefty increases in property value meant the city took in more tax money.

For this year, the city’s tax base rose 29.64 percent.

“Very definitely, I am for a fiscally accountable budget,” said Councilman Richard Ferreira, who didn’t directly call for a lower tax rate, just more responsible spending.

Even though it was the focus of his campaign, McCourt said he is not yet ready to call for a lower tax rate because he is inexperienced with the budget process. He would not advocate any higher taxes.

“It would be my objective to hold the line at this point,” he said.

Only Simons said she would decrease the tax rate. The rate should be dropped to 0.9, but she would be willing to compromise for 0.95, she said.

“I am going to try to lower the millage,” she said.

Ferreira said the city, which incorporated at the end of 1999, is still experiencing growing pains and needs money to make up for neglect under county leadership.

“The city is still bouncing back from being the poor child of the county,” he said.