Interesting..FAU stadium to be "pushed".

[Brad]

Boca’s financial future grim

Expenses will exceed income in 2005-2006 budget, says city manager

 

Published Saturday, May 7, 2005 1:00 am

by By Dale M. King and Sean Salai

The revenue “bubble” that’s kept Boca Raton taxpayers safe from property tax hikes for many years is about to burst.

City Manager Leif Ahnell warned the City Council and department heads this week that expenses will begin to outstrip incoming cash during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

And each year after that, the gap will grow wider and wider, unless taxes are raised or financial “alternatives” are found.

Council members on Friday wrapped up their annual two-day goal setting session by telling Ahnell to come up with a “fiscal plan.”

During the sessions – and after – there was plenty of talk of “creative” funding sources, but no council member would say that a tax rate hike was definitely in the offing.

Asked if Boca’s taxes would be increased from the current $3.15 per $1,000 valuation, Mayor Steven Abrams said, “We’ll find out in September.”

That’s when the council must approve Ahnell’s spending plan for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. He normally submits it in July.

During a presentation on Thursday, the city manager offered a forbidding fiscal forecast, one that shows spending outpacing income by $3.3 million in the coming fiscal year, $7.3 million in fiscal 2007 and $9.5 million in fiscal 2008.

“Property taxes make up about a third of our revenue,” Ahnell said. “The other two-thirds,” which comes from a variety of sources the city has little control over, is projected to grow at a rate of only 2.5 percent. Expenses are rising at a much faster rate.

“We cannot sustain an increase in expenses,” said Ahnell. “The property tax will have to shoulder more of the burden.”

Boca Raton does have the lowest tax rate of all cities in Palm Beach County and most in nearby Broward. A 10 percent increase in the tax rate, he said, would generate $4 million additional dollars. That would cost the average taxpayer about $71 a year.

Worsening Boca’s financial picture is the fact that a new library and an additional fire station will be brought on line in 2006 – at a total cost of $2.6 million. The following year, another new fire station comes on at $1.3 million. And another library will be added in 2008.

“We have some tough decisions ahead,” said Councilwoman Susan Whelchel.

“We have choices. Do you cut services? Privatize? Raise taxes?” Even if the tax rate is increased, she said, the amount will still be low.

“We’ll look at all our options to enhance revenues,” said Councilman Peter Baronoff. He said he’d received a number of e-mails from people who don’t want services reduced.

“Taxes have generally outpaced increased spending,” he said. “That’s not the case this year.”

Baronoff said the city is preparing to send an informational flier to all taxpayers explaining the city’s financial situation.

Council members also decided Friday to push such other “action items” as a downtown “vision” program, completion of a study of North Federal Highway and promotion of a light industrial research park (LIRP).

Other goals for the year are old ones, including the pursuit of alternative revenue sources and better cooperation between the city and Florida Atlantic University on pending construction projects.

Those projects include a domed FAU football stadium, I-95 interchange at Spanish River Road and the planned transformation of Boca Raton Community Hospital into a teaching hospital on the FAU campus.

The council’s new priorities for the year include reviewing the city charter, which hasn’t been touched in a decade, and hiring an education advocate to lobby the Palm Beach County School District.

The latter was recommended last week by the city’s K-12 task force after a yearlong education study.

A final priority for the year is protecting the city’s recent deal to turn the former Cartoon Museum at Mizner Park into a multi-use cultural center and cornerstone of downtown development.

Although the city inked the deal with General Growth Partners (GGP) in March, City Manager Ahnell said the corporation had invested no money in the cultural space and was already lobbying to turn the second floor into condominium space.

“They are struggling mightily with the cultural component,” Ahnell said.

Using the second floor for condos would violate the deal and prevent the city from meeting its bond requirement to reserve part of Mizner Park for non-profit uses, said Councilwoman Whelchel.

“We can either sit here and wait for GGP to flip the property or we can pressure them to live up to the agreement,” Whelchel said.

Council members pledged to summon GGP officials before the Community Redevelopment Agency sometime this year, to help them find cultural resources and entities for the space.

The city is legally required to pay off the outstanding $66.8 million on the Mizner Park bond by 2019.

The authors can be reached at dking@bocanews.com and at ssalai@bocanews.com.

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[ucfknights04]

Wow...I already feel bad for their school dealing with Boca NIMBYs.  They'll make ours look like nothing.

[Knight_Light]

Boca deserves what is coming.

Some of the most stuck-up people in FLA live in Boca.

Thankfully, I "drive-thru" Boca on most trips...1 night tops.

They can have it.

KL

[GarySJ]

FAU's 40K-seat domed stadium is pure fiction. Nobody wants it, and it's for **** sure nobody wants to pay for it. In Palm Beach County politics, Boca has pull. As does FAU, being the major university in town, and a well-connected one at that. If there was sufficient support for the project, it would already be done.

[Knight_Light]

Palm Beach County Officials have their hands full.

They are desperately trying to hold onto "Scripps" contract that could lead to over $2 Billion in High Tech investment for that county over the next 15 plus years.

Orlando finished 2nd to Palm Beach County...but Scripps might be nearing the end if they don't get there way in Palm Beach.

From the Sun-Sentinel:

Scripps turns up heat on Palm Beach

Officials at the research institute are threatening to scrap the stalled project.

By Cadence Mertz

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

May 18, 2005

Frustrated at the lack of progress and a "lack of certainty" over its Palm Beach County expansion, officials at the Scripps Research Institute are prepared to consider scrapping the $800 million, publicly financed Scripps Florida plan and have asked their general counsel to develop an "exit strategy," county officials said Tuesday.

Word of Scripps' frustration and threatened departure reached county officials late Monday after a board meeting at the biotech institute's headquarters in La Jolla, Calif., at which trustees expressed concern that the project was stalled.

Utilities Director Bevin Beaudet, the county's former Scripps program manager, said Scripps Chief Operating Officer Douglas Bingham told him the board "expressed extreme frustration" over the slow progress and was ready to discuss leaving the state.

County Commissioner Mary McCarty said Bingham told her Tuesday that without a firm date to start construction of Scripps' $140 million headquarters he had been instructed to look for "an exit strategy."

Spooked at word that the institute may scrap the highly celebrated Scripps Florida project, at least four commissioners indicated Tuesday they might allow construction to begin on the biotech park, despite pending legal challenges. County commissioners will discuss the matter next week.

McCarty asked her fellow board members to reconsider their December ruling that bars construction until the lawsuits are resolved. Environmentalists are suing because they oppose placement of the massive biotech development on the rural Mecca Farms site. Construction was supposed to begin Jan. 3.

So far, the county has won four legal battles against construction at Mecca Farms, McCarty said. Another four cases are pending.

The institute on Tuesday released a statement from Bingham saying it remained committed to the Mecca Farms site, but had serious concerns about the lack of certainty concerning Scripps Florida.

Scripps cannot simply up and leave, said Chief Assistant County Attorney James Mize. Palm Beach County and the state have contracts with Scripps that bind the institute to Florida, he said.

In 2003, Scripps rebuffed a proposed site near Orlando's Lake Nona in favor of the Palm Beach County location.

But Central Florida officials have said they would like another chance at bringing the institute to the Orlando area.

A spokeswoman for Lake Nona said Wednesday the developer could not comment on the report of Scripps' impatience.

Several Palm Beach County commissioners said they don't buy Scripps' threats to pack up.

"This is just smoke, this is a threat," Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti.

Cadence Mertz is a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-bizscripps18051805may18,0,5480018,print.story?coll=orl-business-headlines

[GarySJ]

Not at all surprising. Palm Beach County is self-conflicted when it comes to things like this Scripps business. Most cities want jobs, and can make coordinated efforts to attract companies like this. But you've got a lot of selfish NIMBYs here who don't want an eyesore like Scripps messing up the aesthetics of their little enclaves with all their buildings, and all their employees coming and going.

That's what 90% of these "environmental" complaints are really about. It's amazing -- nobody cares about the environment until you want to build a factory, at which point everyone within 10 miles of the site suddenly joins the Sierra Club.

Scripps will never build here, and the county commissioners will fiddle while one employer after another leaves town, or never moves here in the first place.

[smazza]

ftu/ou/oc and fau will never get stadiums

they a bush league programs

wanna bes