Manatee County approves $923 million 2022 budget with a heavy focus on infrastructure
The Manatee Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday evening to approve a $923.4 million budget that focuses heavily on improving infrastructure.
The 2022 budget is the first one that several new commissioners, who campaigned on promises of roadway upgrades and traffic congestion improvements, have had a chance to weigh in on. The budget also includes a property tax cut of about $50 for the average homeowner.
In August, commissioners voted to lower the county’s tax rate for the first time since 2008. Property owners will pay $6.3826 per $1,000 of their property value. According to county staff, the average homeowner will pay around $1,276 in property taxes to the county next year.
As the board discussed its vision for the budget earlier this year, the newly elected board members — Commissioners Vanessa Baugh, James Satcher, Kevin Van Ostenbridge and George Kruse — spoke in favor of spending millions of dollars in extra reserve funds in order to catch up with rapid growth over the past decade.
“This board is talking about the largest transportation budget in the history of this county,” said Baugh said. “The traffic congestion that we’re dealing with is being worked on.”
In budget presentations earlier this summer, County Administrator Scott Hopes explained that the budget makes “strategic” use of the county’s reserve funds in order to pay for the infrastructure projects that board members said they would like to see.
Some of those upgrades include resurfacing 75th Street West, expanding Erie Road to four lanes and a new program that will pave roads in rural parts of the county. The budget also sets aside money for improving busy intersections and installing new sidewalks.
“You are substantially increasing your infrastructure,” Jan Brewer, the county’s chief financial officer and deputy county administrator, told commissioners, noting that the budget commits $350 million toward transportation.
The 2022 budget also provides another $12.5 million in funding for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, which will pay for 14 new deputies, another boat to patrol the county’s coastline and salary increases for existing staffers.
Commissioners also addressed questions regarding the environmental land referendum that voters overwhelmingly approved last November. The ballot item directed the county to raise the tax rate in order to pay for conservation lands.
While the environmental lands tax will not be charged to residents this year, Manatee officials are allocating the $5 million that would have been collected. Commissioners said they did not want to charge residents without a plan in place for spending that money.
The board plans to hold a public workshop meeting to discuss how the county will identify and purchase environmental lands in October.
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 3:47 PM.
