The Zephyrhills City Council has approved a budget of nearly $60.5 million for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
The annual spending plan is based on a millage rate of 6.35 million, which is the same rate as the city has had for the last several years.
The tax rate will generate $5,054,921 in ad valorem taxes, based on a citywide property valuation of $837,847,970. The city’s valuation was $774,173,659 last year and generated $4,695,056 in ad valorem revenues.
No one offered public comment during the budget’s second and final public hearing.
Councilman Charles Proctor commended city staffers for organizing a balanced budget — without raising taxes — amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He characterized that accomplishment as “a big deal.”
The councilman went on: “That’s why I’m so proud to live in Florida. We live in a state where it’s in our constitution that we have to have a balanced budget. I believe that should be nationwide, personally, but it’s not.
“We live within our means, and that’s the whole idea of having this balanced budget,” Proctor said.
In another city matter, staffers are reviewing an amended financial agreement from Pasco County on the multimillion County Road 54 enhancement project, which calls for a signalized intersection, turn lanes and a multi-use path along a 1.31 mile stretch, from east of U.S. 301 to 23rd Street. The proposed agreement will be brought in front of city council “very soon,” City Manager Billy Poe said.
Construction on the $2.3 million U.S 301/Pretty Pond Road signalized intersection project is slated to begin Oct. 12 and has an eight month completion timeline. The project calls for the relocation of an existing signalized intersection from the shopping plaza entrance to Pretty Pond Road, a signalized intersection at Medical Arts Court, and all other required roadway improvements. “We’ll see some dirt being churned very soon,” Poe said.
Published October 07, 2020
