Okaloosa budget gets initial approval (DOCUMENT)

FORT WALTON BEACH — After more than five months of discussions, Okaloosa County commissioners approved their preliminary 2011 budget, a $280.5 million spending plan that keeps the current property tax rate.

Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to accept the tentative budget after a public hearing.

About 40 visitors attended the meeting, but only a handful spoke.

David Lambert of Mary Esther said commissioners had done “a good job of crunching numbers” but urged them to keep cutting costs.

“It’s a very hard time here,” he said. “A lot of people are retired. Their investments have gone down the tank. A lot of people work for minimum wage.”

Lambert criticized the Sheriff’s Office for allowing officers to take patrol cars home.

“It seems everyone in the sheriff’s department has a personal staff car,” said Lambert, who added that the department could adopt a shared motor fleet to save money.

Commissioners Bill Roberts and John Jannazo told Lambert that Sheriff Ed Spooner cut $1.4 million from his budget.

“The sheriff’s department took the biggest dollar cut of any department in the county,” Roberts said.

Fort Walton Beach Tea Party Chairman Henry Kelley thanked commissioners for holding the county’s property tax rate at 3.28 mills.

The proposed budget includes $4.8 million in unrestricted reserves — enough to operate the county for about 30 days, said County Administrator Jim Curry.

The package includes no raises for county employees and an overall reduction of 24 positions through a voluntary separation program.

Earlier Thursday, commissioners voted 4-1 to include in the budget a $20 million beach restoration project for 2.8 miles of beach on Okaloosa Island and 1.7 miles of beach in Destin. Jannazo voted no.

The project will be funded with $12.3 million in bed tax revenues and assessments on beach property owners.

Commissioners also transferred $84,283 from the county’s self-insurance reserve to keep all of Okaloosa County Transit’s bus routes intact through fiscal 2011.

Several capital projects are also funded, including the demolition of the Garnier’s wastewater treatment plant, water system improvements in the Sylvania Heights neighborhood and improvements to three beach accesses and seven parks.

Commissioner James Campbell praised the budget package and the county staff that put it together.

“It was our department heads and our constitutional officers who came together to make this happen,” he said.

The board will have its final public hearing on the budget at 6 p.m. Sept. 21 at the courthouse in Crestview.