The City of Palm Coast’s Council members held a special budget meeting. During the meeting the council members heard the final budget presentation for the fiscal year 2023-2024. This meeting was the first of two public hearings regarding the city budget. The second meeting will be held September 20th, 2023.
Meeting opened with public comment. Residents spoke against the increase
in taxes over the last couple years, and questioned the city budgets. One resident
went over the entire city budget and pulled out sections where she found increases
that were in her opinion high.
The meeting then moved on to a presentation by city staff that was an overview of
the entire budgeting process that has been ongoing since April. The presentation
was the first public hearing of the final revised budget for fiscal year 2024.
This included the general fund, proprietary fund, special revenue funds, capital funds,
internal service funds, and TRIM (truth in millage). This presentation was
the first of two public hearings. The council will vote tonight on the adopting the
budget tonight and they will have to vote to adopt the budget again on
September 20th, 2023.
The council then voted on accepting the millage rate of 4.2570 mils. This is
an increase of 0% from last year. The council voted and passed the motion
to set the tentative TRIM for 2024.
The 2022-2023 budget saw a decrease after it was amended during the budgeting
process. Councilman Danko had questions regarding the budget. He had questions about the SAD committee and why there are funds allocated for SAD, when they haven’t met in ten years. He stated that he knows they will be meeting on the 14th of the
month. He also questioned a grant that City Manager Bevin stated is for a
road safety study for the entire Town Center Corridor. After this discussion
the council voted to tentatively accept the 2023-2024 fiscal budget. The next vote will
be on September 20th, 2023.
