Lynn Landry, mayor of the city of Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
How did the budget meeting go last night?
Landry said, “I’m going to go backwards to go forwards a little bit. Originally, we started with a budget proposal from staff of a millage of 2.2235 which was running a deficit budget of about $2.3 million. And then we had our meeting in July to set the millage at 2.3434, just to give us some wiggle room. So after that meeting, they went to work with staff. We’ve all had our private meetings with staff, and we were able to cut about a million dollars out of the budget before our first public hearing. So that really helped us kind of get to where we’re at. Then the first public hearing, we had a lot of good input from the community, a lot of good council discussion, and then a bigger discussion led by council, Vice Mayor Smith, who connected a lot of the dots in the budget and talked a lot about where our reserves we thought we should have them for the last couple of years. So after the discussion, Vice Mayor Smith made a motion to roll back which will be no new taxes for the city of Marathon, which puts us at a millage rate of 2.0631 and because of the money we got out of the budget, it’s a little bit over a $2.1 million deficit spending budget. However, historical data would show us, over the last few years, especially from ’25, we had a $374,000 deficit budget that we approved, and it looks like if everything holds true, we’re going to put about 1.1 million in reserves. So historically, we’ve been coming in a little under budget. We did keep the millage last night with a couple of public speakers and a very brief discussion, we kept the millage at 2.0631 and it is going to be about a $2.1 million a little bit more than that deficit budget. However, for the last few years, we’ve talked about our reserves being good at 12 months, and we’ve had up to 16 months of reserves at times, and that’s always in flux based on the actual operating costs of the city, and every year that goes up based on cost increase that we have for the city and they also include one time expenditures in that budget. So if we took all those out, or after this year, or there’s one time expenditures that we may not need to repeat in the near future, the actual cost of running the city by the day will go down considerably. So you take that into account, our reserves are probably better than what they actually are on paper right now.”
The highlight is rollback.
Landry confirmed, “Right. Roll back, which is a term I don’t really like to use. We’re just not going to raise taxes. We’ve been able to pull that off for three years in a row while increasing city services, which is an amazing thing and a great feat from staff for the city of Marathon.”
Is the primary concern from constituents not raising taxes?
Landry said, “You hear that every year. No matter what we do, you hear, don’t raise taxes, but at the end of the day, we have to be fiscally responsible to the city and also making sure we keep our levels of services where they need to be for the city. I mean, if we keep cutting taxes, eventually we’re going to have to cut staff, which means we’re going to cut city services. So the upcoming year, we’re looking at doing a study for the wastewater utilities. We’ve got aging infrastructure there, so we’re going to do an efficiency study there, to see where we can save some money and do a little bit better. But the department’s great. They run well, it’s just that all our infrastructure is aging, so it’s getting more and more expensive to maintain that. We’re also talking about doing studies like that throughout the city, to see where we can be more efficient and where we can do better.”
The city continues to keep an eye on the discussion of potentially getting rid of property taxes in Tallahassee.
Landry said, “Absolutely. Just like the county, the city of Marathon, we don’t rely solely on ad valorem taxes. It’s about probably 40% to 45% of our overall budget, but still a huge impact in our budget. I think it’s around little over 10 million this year in our budget. I mean a total budget of a little over 24 million. So if they cut property taxes out completely, the money’s got to come from somewhere, because, generally speaking, it funds, just like the county, our public sector, our fire rescue, the sheriff’s department, some of the main services that we provide for the city of Marathon. So we’re all watching it. We’re all watching it closely, one way or the other. It’s, as Jim Mooney said the other day, that if the state collects all the taxes and then comes up with a new plan and then sends it to the counties and the municipalities, what could possibly go wrong there? But one thing about rolling back taxes and not raising taxes, we’ve been talking about it for a few years, we do have the reserves, but we’re also part of F-ROC for the Florida Department of Emergency Management. The county is as well. It’s a program that you enter to streamline and have a plan in place, and they’ll actually advance us money after the storm. We’re not sure exactly what that percentage is going to be yet, but the advance will help us not dip into reserves right after the storm, and it’ll get us up and running for the cleanup, and that’s going to help us so we’re probably fiscally more prepared in the city of Marathon than we’ve been in quite some time, and prepared for the disaster, although we hope that it doesn’t come. Absolutely no cutbacks for the city. We’ve actually added some city services while being able to hold the line on the taxes. But eventually we’re going to have to raise taxes. There’s just no way to roll back every single year. Costs are increasing. Anybody in the private sector understands that. Costs have gone up substantially the last three or four years, especially post COVID, and so we’re all having to deal with that and feeling the pressure, but we’re always wanting to be fiscally responsible to the city of Marathon. Just be aware in the city of Marathon, when you get your tax bill, your taxes are going to go up and just a reminder that we’re about 25% of the overall cost of your tax bill, so the taxes are going to go out for everybody this year. Unfortunately, the county and other places have had to raise their millage to sustain their budget and do all the services that they need to do for the county and other agencies.”