Village's property tax rate unchanged

Printed Page 3

Pinecrest officials made zero changes to the $14.2 million budget Tuesday, giving the final OK to Village Manager Peter Lombardi’s proposed plan, which calls for keeping the same tax rate and making park improvements.

Only one resident expressed a concern.

“I’m hoping we can have as low a [tax rate] as possible,” Ann Dickhouse said. “Anything that you can do to adjust the rate would be appreciated.”

“We have set the lowest tax rate in the entire county,” Mayor Evelyn Greer said. “I think it’s pretty reasonable for the services that are provided here in the city.”

With that said, the tax rate will stay at $2.40 for every $1,000 of assessed property value, which means a homeowner with the average $400,000 home and a $25,000 homestead exemption would pay $900 in village property taxes.

That amount doesn’t include other items that appear on a tax bill such as school district taxes.

Though the rate stays the same, area homeowners will still pay a little more because of rising property values.

Under the budget, residents looking to make changes to their homes will pay more for a permit, because fees are up from 1 percent of the remodeling project cost to the county’s rate of 4.6 percent.

As for village spending, a big chunk of the village’s money will go toward sprucing up parks.

There’s millions in the pot to build a community center and library, pave new pathways, add a cafe and possibly make room for some soccer fields at Pinecrest Gardens.

The village also plans to

Printed continuation instruction: TURN TO BUDGET, 14

Printed Page 14

Continuation headline: Pinecrest’s property tax rate unchanged

Printed marker: BUDGET, FROM 3

spend $40,000 to put extra bathrooms at Palmetto Middle School, which would be available to kids who use the sports fields there when the school’s bathrooms are locked. An extra $117,600 is set aside to fix the drainage problem at Suniland Park.

This year, Pinecrest will also spend 7 percent more on its police department. The plan is to buy six new cars and laptops and recruit more officers.

In other news, Pinecrest officials reminded folks that the Village Hall will be closed Oct. 14-15 because city officials are moving to a new home at 12645 Pinecrest Pkwy.

The founding council hopes to have a special meeting at the new village hall before the Oct. 30 ribbon ceremony and before handing over three of their seats to the incoming council members.

Pull Quotation

“We have set the lowest tax rate in the entire county. I think it’s pretty reasonable for the services that are provided here in the city.”

Attributed in print to Evelyn Greer, Pinecrest Mayor. Repeats the body quotation, not an additional statement by Gary Matzner.