Kimberly Mitchell

I always like Kimberly Mitchell's thoughtful and fair approach to her decisions as West Palm Beach commissioner. She is always butting heads with strong Mayor, Lois Frankel. Last night was no exception when millage was discussed to a packed audience. When folks bring up the strong mayor possibility for the City of Lake Worth, I always revert to Lois and why it would be a very bad idea. Strong mayors are not team players.

West Palm Beach on a 4 to 1 vote (Mitchell dissenting) voted to raise its millage from $7.55 to $8.07. Frankel used Lake Worth mayor Jeff Clemens' approach to it by saying that property values have gone down thus the City is generating less income to operate and that consequently the majority of taxpayers would be paying much less in taxes. As the Mayor is enjoying her new government building that she pushed through, socking it to the taxpayers in her city, West Palm Beach's budget is $20 million smaller than last year.

Mitchell pushed for a lower tax wanting to reduce pay for commissioners and top management saying, "to not ask anyone in the city to be taking a hit except for taxpayers is the wrong thing to do."

Look for more tax cuts at the 2nd Public Hearing.