Saturday, June 14, 2025
The Village of Atlantic Beach Board of Trustees unanimously approved the 2025–26 budget and a tax warrant totaling $3,746,129 that will raise residents’ property taxes by 87 percent during a special adoption meeting on April 30.
The proposed budget, originally presented at the village’s general meeting on April 28, sparked major controversy among residents after the board revealed that property taxes could increase by as much as 60 percent.
Following the backlash from the community, the board voted to delay the vote to revise the budget and reduce the projected tax increase.
Mayor George Pappas, in a statement during the April 30 meeting, attributed the steep increase to a tax shift by Nassau County and procedural errors by previous administrations.
“Following months of research and consultation, we've determined that the procedures implemented when the village ceased being an assessing unit were materially incorrect,” Pappas said. “The inequalities caused by the incorrect procedures implemented by previous administrations were magnified over years as a result of Nassau County not maintaining stable levels of assessment, even though these calculations directly affect the distribution of village taxes.”
An expanded story will appear in next week’s edition of the Herald.
