HomeMy WebLinkAbout1964-10-21 Tax Increase Voted To Pay Club Debts (Palm Beach Post)t
NORTH PALM BEACH PUBLIC LIBRARY
1-Mill Hike
Approved By
3-2 Margin
NORTH PALM BEACH —
The villaige council voted 3-2
Tuesday night to increase taxes
one mill in order to pay off
$100,000 in back debts on the
North Palm Beach Country
Club.
The village bought the coun-
try club in 1961.
The tax increase was autho-
rized at a meeting in which not
one member of the capacity
audience spoke in favor of hi-
gher taxes.
Mayor Harold W. Beery and
Councilmen Herbert A. Watt
and Lesley Churchill voted for
the increase to 10 mills. Vice
Mayor Thomas F. Lewis and
Councilman Thomas Bell oppos-
ed it — as they had at last
weeks' 2-2 deadlock vote.
Churchill was out of town du-
ring last week's meeting.
The budget already included a
$20,000 item for payment toward
the $100,000 debt, and the in-
creased millage will enable the
village to pay at least $53,000
daring the fiscal year that be-
gins Nov. 1. Hope was express- el
ed that the tax increase can beIof
dropped after one year. re
The mayor said after ' the if
meeting that the tax hike will ')f
cost most of the persons in the s
audience who opposed it from $8
to $10 a year.
Immediately after the budget,
with the higher tax rate, was
adopted Lewis moved that alloc-
ations be spent only for items
for which they were budgeted.
His resolution was adopted una-
nimously.
There were two votes last
night on the budget. The first
proposal was to keep the tax
rate at nine mills and pay off
the debt over a five-year period.
Sponsored by Lewis and Bell, it
was defeated.
Saying he represented a majo-
rity of residents at the meeting,
Paul Emond said the village
should sell the country club or
scale rates down to where all
residents can use it.
"It's getting to the point
where the millage increase will
chase everybody out and we'll
have a ' ghost town on our
hands." he contended.
When the mayor asked if an-
yone in the audience cared to
speak for increasing taxes, he
was greeted with laughter.
Watt suggested the one -mill
tax increase. Last week he had
proposed raising taxes two mills
to clear up the debt in one year.
He said last night here is a
possibility that in a year the tax
roil will :vrnw enough to dron
the one mill and still wipe out
the debt in two years.
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uecraring no one ever won a
popularity contest by speaking
for more taxes, Mayor Beery
said he favored one mill for as
many years as necessary.
Paying aff the debt with a 25
year bond issue or during a
five-year period would mean
much more interest, he said.
Residents will vote on a bond
issue in November. One item
would authorize bonds to wipe
out the country club debt.
Churchill said he favored de-
creasing the debt by a larger
amount than the $20,000 pravid
ed in the original budget.
Lewis pointed out the millage
recently annexed stores and re-
sidents and said it was unjust to
raise their taxes. He also said
he thought paying off a debt
that began years ago during a
one-year period was not good
business thinking.
The working man who lives in
North Palm Beach can't afford
a tax hike at this time, Bell
said. He pointed out that the
village had taken in new resi-
dents and now wants to raise
their taxes.
Marshall Benjamin, head
master of the recently annexed
North Palm Beach Private
School, said he didn't agree with
the tax hike, but. he lauded the
three councilmen backing it for
their courage in the facce of
opposition.
After the final vote there were
additional comments from the
audience.
One resident said he was
going to court to see whether his
tax money which went to the
country club was bbeing spent
legally, another suggested tur-
ning the country club into a
town hall and selling the town
hall and a third complained a
boy scout troop was requested
to pay $5 an hour for use of a
country club room.
Council gave approval to two
developers who plan a group of
homes and an apartment buil.
ding complex .on. U.S. 1 at the
south end of the village.
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