Jim Scholl, Monroe County Commissioner for District 3 and Mayor Pro Tem for the county, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
A recent budget workshop saw the commissioners approve the millage rate for the 2025 fiscal year.
Scholl said, “Actually the proposed millage rate is a little lower than it was last year. The millage is the rate you pay per $1,000 of assessed value, not the real estate value but the property appraiser’s assessed value. So we’re fortunate in that we’ve been able to control the costs for what the property taxes actually go for, which is your health safety and welfare issues, police fire ambulance and then our constitutional officers that are part of the county budget and that ad valorem tax rate, but 90% of what your property taxes go to, a little over 90%, are those particular items that we are responsible for as a county government. So we do work very hard to be frugal and make sure that what the property taxes are used for as far as revenues for the county to be able to pay for all of those services. We work very hard and our finance department does a great job, and coordinating with the constitutional officers to keep those rates as low as possible.”
Of the total budget, about $156 million is ad valorem, or from property taxes, which is out of the entire budget of about $715.7 million.
Scholl pointed out, “The budget has gone up significantly, the total budget, but not the portions that our property taxes go to and the reason for that increase in the budget, are the major projects that we have ongoing that are funded through other funding sources. So we have revenues that come in. So those revenues get booked, obviously, on the revenue side of the budget, and then there are expenses tied to those revenues, which are grant funds and federal funds. The examples are our Emergency Operations Center, which hopefully will be open before the end of hurricane season, but we’ve been building that for the last year up in Marathon and that’s a major project. Then the airport project is another huge project. So all the revenues that come in to support that project are in the budget. Then another big cost item is the Trauma Star helicopters. Our fleet was the oldest flying fleet of those emergency evacuation helicopters for medical evacuations. Quite frankly, the hours on those aircraft were being used up. So rather than buying another fleet of used aircraft, we were able to work through financing opportunities to actually contract for three new aircraft. So when we get those, they’ll have a much longer life to those. But those are essential. All those things are critical elements, supporting not only our residents and visitors, but our economy with regard to the airport. So all those revenues have to be booked in the budget. So it makes it look like our budget is over inflated, but it’s because of construction and infrastructure projects.”
The first public hearing for the budget will be Wednesday, September 4, at five at Harvey Government Center in Key West.
Scholl reminded, “That first initial budget was released, it’s available online, and we welcome any input from our residents on issues that they think need attention in that budget. The budget hearings in September, there’s two of them that are required for every governmental entity. So that’s when we finalize the budget is in the second budget hearing in September.”
Scholl is also serving on the selection committee for the Tourist Development Council’s search for a new executive director.
He said, “We have a meet and greet this evening (for three of the final candidates), one of them had a conflict and won’t be here. The meet and greet is at the Courtyard by Marriott up in Marathon at 2146 Overseas Highway. That’s from 5 to 7 this evening if there’s interested folks out there that would like to attend that. It’ll be a good opportunity, at least to meet these folks. Then tomorrow we have the formal in person interviews, in Marathon. So that process is moving along, and certainly a very important position for our tourism industry down here in the Florida Keys.”
Scholl also received the certified County Commissioner designation last month at an award ceremony at the Florida Association of Counties.
He said, “That’s something that takes a while to obtain and fortunately, they have put most of the longer courses online. It used to all be in person. I would do that when we’d have our annual meetings for the Florida Association of Counties. But this last year, they’ve put so many of them online, I was able to complete it without having to travel to actually take courses that happened periodically around the year. But as you might imagine, they’re not very close to the Keys. So I was chipping away at him, but was able to get that done. So I’m certainly proud of that accomplishment. You never stop learning. You always need to keep learning and know about the profession you’re in. So I was glad I was able to complete that.”
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM said, “We certainly do want to thank you for your public service, and now currently serving as mayor pro tem of Monroe County. So thank you for the variety and dedication that you’ve added in a variety of positions to the country and to the county as well.”
Scholl said, “I’ve really been honored to be able to do all of that and working with the people on the staffs and hiring good people and making sure that we support our communities as best we can.”