Proposed Municipal Service Taxing Unit

👮🏼‍♂️ Outcast: Bradshaw budget faces the boot

"Like a teenager who has outgrown his childhood bedroom, the $1.2 billion budget for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has gotten so big it may need to move out on its own.

County commissioners, frustrated by state officials claiming they squander property tax money while praising Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s spending, are proposing a municipal service taxing unit, or MSTU, to separate the sheriff’s budget from everything else.

Why it matters: The move would sharply reduce the cost of the sheriff’s services for city residents, while increasing it for residents of unincorporated areas. It would force the sheriff to justify annual increases to residents who would see a direct impact on their pocketbooks.

What they’re saying: “It’s the county’s responsibility to fund the budget for law enforcement services,” Bradshaw said in a statement declaring no objection to the proposal. “It’s their decision which method they choose to accomplish this. I only oppose not getting properly funded.”

The county budget would still cover the sheriff’s costs to run jails, secure the courts and analyze crime data.

Expenses for patrolling unincorporated portions of the county, which total hundreds of millions of dollars, would fall to the MSTU. Residents of Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and any other city with its own police force would pay for those universal services through the county tax but would get a lower county tax bill because they wouldn’t be part of the MSTU.

Those who live in the 12 cities, including Lake Worth Beach, Greenacres and Wellington, that have contracts with the sheriff’s office for law enforcement, also would not be part of the MSTU.

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