ST. PETE BEACH — Uncertain how a November property tax referendum will play out, city commissioners weighed several creative options before voting to hold the millage rate flat at 3.0913 mills, the same rate the island has kept since 2024.
At that rate, the owner of a $500,000 home with a $50,000 exemption would pay $1,477 a year, or $123 a month, Finance Director Devon Schmidt said.
Commissioners had three choices for the 2027 fiscal year, Schmidt said: keep the current 3.0913 rate; adopt the rolled-back rate of 3.0757, which would raise the same revenue as this year and cost that homeowner about $1,470, or $122 a month; or, with a two-thirds commission vote, raise the rate to 3.8330 for an additional $3.8 million.
Keeping the rate flat will bring in roughly $80,000 more than the rollback, Schmidt said, because the island’s total taxable value has risen. “Growth is driven by property values, not rate increases,” she told commissioners.
St. Pete Beach has the 15th-lowest tax rate among the county’s cities, Schmidt said — higher than Madeira Beach’s 2.750 mills but lower than Treasure Island’s 3.8129. The city held its rate at 3.15 mills from 2015 to 2023 before dropping to 3.0913 in 2024.
The city collects just 19% of the total property tax bill, she said. The rest is split among Pinellas County schools, which get 40%; the county, 29%; EMS, 5%; and other districts, 7%.
The stakes turn on the November referendum. If it passes, Schmidt said, the city stands to lose $1.1 million — 7.2% of its ad valorem revenue — in the first year. Non-homestead properties such as hotels, condominiums and businesses pay 70.6% of the city’s property taxes, she said, while homesteaded properties pay 29.4%.
The discussion turned creative. “These are our only options?” Vice Mayor Lisa Robinson asked. Schmidt replied that commissioners could land “something between any of the rates.”
Commissioner Jon Maldonado floated a two-tier approach. “Can we adopt a storm and a non-storm rate?” he asked. “Let’s say we get hit with another major storm — could we roll up to a higher millage rate?”
City Attorney Ralf Brookes said the city could set a higher rate and come down later. “You have to pick a rate and have a contingent rate,” he said. “You can pick one now and go lower, if you don’t get a storm.”
“So maybe go with the higher in the event of a storm, and then lower it to a non-storm, non-emergency?” Maldonado asked.
“But we have to figure out the budget for both,” Brookes said, “so I don’t know if you want two different budgets.”
“I see raised eyebrows. It sounds like I’m overthinking this,” Maldonado said. “Just trying to be creative.”
Schmidt reminded commissioners that time was short: the county needs the rate so TRIM notices can reach residents by the end of July. “The TRIM notice will be the preliminary,” Brookes said. “I believe you can go below that in your real one, but you can’t go higher.”
City Manager Fran Robustelli said the city could start high and adjust down. “The initial TRIM notice could go higher, and before we adopt the budget it could be lower,” she said. “But then we would need direction, because we have to build a budget. We would need to know what portion of that you don’t want us to budget and put into reserves.”
Robinson said the top rate was a hard sell. “My concern here would be just going with that much higher number — the 3.8 — on top of the assessments we’re looking at,” she said. “It’s big. It’s huge.”
She asked what the city stood to lose if the referendum passed. “$1.1 million in 2028, so that won’t be for this tax roll, and then it goes up to $2.2 million,” Schmidt said.
Commissioner Karen Marriott said the timing made an increase hard to justify, estimating that proposed utility rate increases alone would cost households about $800 more a year. “Raising the millage on top of raising all the fees is a hard number to swallow,” she said. “I would be most in favor of leaving our millage rate exactly where it is. There’s still some unknowns as far as what property values are going to do on St. Pete Beach as we continue to recover from the hurricane, and how quickly.”
Marriott said she expected a faster recovery than the city was projecting. “By the time it’s all said and done, we actually have more revenue than we’re projecting,” she said. “That also gives us room to raise the millage later, if we feel like we need to.” Locking in the top rate now, she said, would leave little room to maneuver: “If we go to that max millage now, we don’t have a lot of room to do anything later if we need to.”
Maldonado called the choice “another scenario where we’re kicking the can down the road” and backed keeping the flat 3.0913 rate over the rollback or the higher option.
Mayor Scott Tate said years of cutting the rate while underfunding capital projects had left the city in a bind. “Knowing that we weren’t funding our capital projects, we actually dropped our millage rate and made our situation even more untenable over the last few years,” he said.
Tate said he favored the flat rate “and seeing if we have to adjust from there, understanding that we’ve got significant investments to do.” He recommended the city adjust its utility fees as proposed and hold the ad valorem rate flat. Other commissioners agreed.