Staff priced a homestead tax cut at $1.1 million and listed new assessments as the backup

Finance Director Patty Douylliez told the June 9 City Commission that if voters expand the homestead exemption, St. Augustine Beach would collect about $560,000 less the first year and about $1.1 million after that — a tax cut for homesteaded owners that city hall immediately started planning to replace.

She said staff would review department spending and also look at non-ad valorem assessments, including the road-and-bridge or law-enforcement special assessments other cities add when the property-tax line shrinks — another charge on the household bill that never shows up as the millage rate.

Vice Mayor Virginia Morgan asked for a public information push about what the city says residents could lose. Commissioner Dylan Rumrell said he wants taxes to go down and that there will be trade-offs. Douylliez walked through a July 27 tentative rate that staff said can still be cut later and that they typically set high at the start.

No new tax or assessment was adopted that night — only the backup list for keeping the city’s take whole if owners get the cut.