Key Biscayne is expected to give final approval Tuesday to its biggest budget in history, a $97 million plan that will fund critical portions of the “Big Dig” plan to protect barrier island from the onslaught of rising seas and climate change.
The plan includes $54 million in capital projects, most of which are related to installing new pressurized drainage pipes, burying utility lines, and shoring up the coastline. In the $43 million operating budget, Manager Steve Williamson wants to add two new police officers and a fire captain.
With all the spending, however, the tax bite is more modest than sought at the beginning of the budget cycle.
Overall taxes would rise about 5.5%, but about 37% of residents who are in Homesteaded properties would see a property tax cut of about 1.5%. Many of those homeowners already enjoy big tax breaks — meaning that once again, renters and commercial property owners will pay the lion’s share of funding Village government.
The property tax rate is proposed to drop from 3.12 to 2.98, the lowest in Miami-Dade County. Offsetting that is a 10% increase in property values, which explains why spending is increasing even as rates decrease.
Helping the budget is $21 million in grants – and a lot of borrowing. The budget projects $17 million in borrowing against the “GO” bond passed by voters in 2020. It calls for $3.5 million in loans from a state revolving fund. The budget also includes $2.4 million from stormwater fees.
Still, Tuesday’s budget hearing is unlikely to be free of contention, if past sessions are any guide. Critics of the Big Dig, who say the plan is overkill and that the current aging system can last a while longer, have advocated for a pause so that another study can be conducted.
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Reacting to those criticisms, Williamson’s administration included an optional $575,000 budget line for inspection of the gravity-based stormwater system that could include sending TV cameras into miles of pipes. Another assessment of whether the current estimates are priced properly is due in a few weeks. An official clarified Monday evening that the inspection program is not part of the budget package.
A special Council meeting about the Big Dig is set for Oct. 23.
Williamson said last week that while the current storm drain system might be sufficient until 2040, projections of increasing rainfall and higher seas would leave the island unprepared after that date, because environmental threats are expected to accelerate rapidly.
“In the end, it really becomes an argument of forcing water off the island or relying on gravity,” Williamson said. “I don’t want to be the one who said, ‘Hey, we started too late, and getting to that point where we just can’t catch up.”
And, Williamson said, the fact that Key Biscayne is ahead of other communities in seeking federal and state resiliency funding is not something that should be taken as a guarantee with environmental challenges becoming more acute nationwide.
“There’ll be more competition, because more people will be going after that money.”
This story was originally published in the Key Biscayne Independent, a WLRN News partner.
