The City
Budget
The budget is an
annual financial plan laid out by the city through a continuous process
of workshops and meetings with citizens and city officials. A municipal
budget is structured by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
This means the budget is comprised of different funds used to finance
different city operations and projects. In the case of Parkland, our
budget has four separate funds. The biggest fund in the budget is the
General Fund, which represents much of the day-to-day expenses of the
operations of the government. Another fund is the Capital Projects Fund,
which provides for municipal improvements, such as the road improvements,
the building of new parks and recreational facilities, and other projects
that make life in the city more enjoyable to live in. There are two
smaller funds making up the City’s budget. One of those is the
Capital Replacement Fund, which has been allotted $732,000 to replace
aging City equipment, and the other is the Park Improvement Fund with
$37,195 to be used exclusively for park acquisition and improvements.
The budget is affected by many different variables, the most influential
being the ad-valorem tax, more commonly referred to as the property
tax. With new legislation being passed to roll back the property tax
level to that of the fiscal year of 2006, in addition to a 5% reduction,
the City’s revenues will be reduced, totaling a revenue loss of
$1.95 million. Though the property tax is the most significant revenue
source, the City also has other funding sources including a utility
tax, gas tax, permitting fees and other service charges. The property
taxes that the city receives are calculated through the millage rate,
which is the rate charged per $1,000 of taxable value of a property.
The tax bill you
receive does not all go toward the municipal budget. The majority of
your taxes are reserved for the School Board of Broward County and Broward
County. See charts below. The City of Parkland only receives 18.9% of
your taxes. Of the monies received, a majority of that goes to fund
public safety and fire services, which makes up forty-five percent (45%)
of the City’s total expenditures.
The Millage
Rate
The millage rate
is a taxation rate to assess property taxes, and is set up by each taxing
authority, such as the school board, county, city, etc. Essentially,
one mill is $1 per $1,000 of taxable property value. For example, if
a city’s millage rate was 5.00, and you own a property that has
a taxable value of $100,000, you would pay $500 in taxes.
The City of Parkland
just recently adopted a millage rate of 3.4083, which is down from last
year’s millage rate of 3.9500, and still lower than the originally
proposed rate of 3.58.
Compared to other cities, Parkland’s millage rate is relatively
low. For example, the City of Ft. Lauderdale has a proposed millage
rate of $4.1193, while the City of Tamarac has a proposed millage rate
of $5.1243. Even Broward County’s millage rate is higher at 6.0661.
Upon review of adopted millage rates, only five cities in Broward County
have a lower millage rate than Parkland.
What does this mean
to you as a resident? In Parkland, if you have a taxable property value
of $100,000, you would pay roughly $340 in taxes. As far as the City’s
taxes are concerned, to find out your taxable property value, you can
go to the County’s Property Appraiser’s web site. Once you
have your property value, you can calculate your city property taxes
with the following formula:
(Taxable value/1000)
x 3.4083 = property taxes.
Example: (100,000/1000) x 3.4083
00 x 3.4083 = $340.83
Fire Assessment
Remains the Same
One of the most
important services provided to the citizens of Parkland is public safety,
especially fire rescue. One would think that with the loss of property
tax revenues the City would raise its fees for services; however, that
is not the case. Despite a motion to increase fire safety fees that
was voted on and approved by the City Commission 4-1 in early July,
the City was able to modify a capital project’s budget in order
to retain the fire assessment fees at $151. By not raising the service
fees, the City of Parkland is in the minority of cities struggling to
compensation for the lack of ad-valorem taxes, such as the City of Pembroke
Pines and the City of Deerfield Beach, which increased its rates by
55%. Although the City is not increasing fees, that does not mean that
the services provided will decrease. In fact, the City actually enhanced
fire services this year by adding the Western Fire Station and a new
fire truck.
