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Tax reform and decreased property values may lead to lower taxes this year, however that doesn’t mean Marco residents will necessarily be paying less money to their local government.

Marco city councilors will be looking at several alternative funding measures at Monday morning’s general fund budget workshop.

City staff is seeking as many means as possible to make up a nearly $1.8 million dollar general fund shortfall. The shortfall is caused primarily by two consecutive years of decreases in taxable property values. The Collier County Appraiser’s Office estimated about a 9.5 percent reduction in Marco Island taxable property values from last year.

The city needs to either cut about $1.8 million from their expenses or raise that amount from residents.

According to a memo to City Council prepared by City Manager Steve Thompson and Finance Director William Harrison, the meeting will focus on “opportunities for reducing the city’s reliance on property taxes to fund essential municipal services.”

City Council will be reviewing three options prepared by staff. Each of the following options has varying effects on how much property owners will pay and how much the spending cap will be affected in future years. The spending cap limits most city expenses to no more than 3 percent increases plus COLA (cost of living adjustment) from one year to the next.

The three options are:

-Levy no new taxes and cut expenses by $1.76 million. This option would require the city to operate at $3.1 million less each year.

-Roll back taxes to last year’s level plus 4.15 percent as allowed by the Florida Legislature. The 4.15 percent is the growth in Florida personal income from last year. This will require a $1.3 million reduction in spending which will affect future year’s spending caps.

-Funding the Smokehouse Bay Bridges at the Esplanade by raising $13 million over five years to fund the two Collier Boulevard bridges. The money would be raised by using a combination of non-ad valorem taxes, such as a fire assessment, storm water utility fee and payment in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT). This will not require the city to lower their spending from last year.

“The two Collier Boulevard bridges past the Esplanade are certainly in no imminent danger of falling into the bay, but they do need to be replaced,” Harrison said, adding that he doesn’t have “$13 million sitting in the city’s checkbook.”

The fire assessment, Harrison said is not a new tax but rather a “shifting” of funding mechanisms to reduce the city’s dependence on property taxes.

The storm water utility fee would be a new fee charging all single family residents the same amount for their average storm water runoff. Commercial properties would be charged based on their square footage of surface that leads to storm water runoff compared to the average single family home’s square footage.

The PILOT funding mechanism would allow the city to charge properties such as the Marco Island Utility’s properties the taxes or assessments they would normally have to pay if they were privately run businesses.

“The first decision council will be making is what size of budget they want us to have next year. They first will determine the size of the pot,” Harrison said.

The next will be how to get that money, whether it’s through property taxes or a new tax by a new name.

The budget meeting is 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday in the Community Meeting Room downstairs from the police station, 51 Bald Eagle Drive.