By DOTTY NIST
The Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) had set a final millage rate on Sept. 28 for the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget. On Oct. 13, Walton County Finance Director William Imfeld notified the BCC that he, in cooperation with Lyle Seigler, interim county administrator, had administratively raised the millage rate from the 3.3536 mills previously set to 3.4076 mills, in order to avoid a budget shortfall.
Imfeld explained that Florida law requires the budget to be balanced and that Florida Statute 200.065(6) provides for such an administrative adjustment to be made to an adopted millage rate, in instances where the property appraiser’s “Certification of Final Taxable Value” of the county changes by more than one percent from that value as reported in July.
The $100,956,540 budget for county government operation that was approved on Sept. 28 had been based on a $13.989 billion preliminary total taxable value of the county reported by Walton County Property Appraiser Patrick Pilcher. Imfeld related that over the weekend prior to Sept. 13, he had received notification from Pilcher’s office showing a final taxable value of $13.779 billion, or 1.51 percent less than the preliminary valuation….
Read the full story in the Oct. 22, 2009 edition of the Herald Breeze.