The bumpy road to budget bliss

Warning off the bat: Going full government geek today.

The County Commission had its budget public hearing Wednesday morning to set the 2024-25 tax rate. I decided to attend, taking notes on my phone looking for any nuggets of interest. I found quite a few.

— First, the official stuff. It’s a $132.7 million general fund budget that keeps the tax rate the same as this year: 8.9302 mills.

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No tax increase, right? Um…

OK. Now stay with me here. The tax rate stays the same, but it brings in $12 million more in revenue. How can that be? Two reasons.

One, taxable value added to the roll with new construction. Vacant acreage isn’t worth much. Place a chain restaurant on it and you’re adding hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxable value. That adds up each year to millions in revenue for the cities, county, and school board.

But it doesn’t cover all of it. This is where it gets a little dicey politically. Remember that the millage rate is a math formula. One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value on property. So, if the millage rate stays the same, but the taxable value of property increases, guess what? Your taxes go up.

Not by much. Due to Save Our Homes and other mandates, once taxable value is set, it can’t increase by more than a few percentage points each year absent improvements to the property. (Better get my plug in now for Property Appraiser Cregg Dalton's website.)

So, to be clear: Keeping the millage rate steady still means a slight tax bump for most property owners. The final budget hearing is in September. Commissioners can lower the tax rate then, but not raise it.

— The budget includes $41.1 million for the sheriff’s office. That’s a 3.3% increase and includes the hiring of 10 additional sworn deputies. Most years, that would be cause for joy.

Not this year because of the sheriff’s exorbitant 79% budget increase demand, basically a non-starter in any normal universe. Commissioners carried on their budget business Wednesday as Sheriff Mike Prendergast sat in the audience without participating.

(Let’s hope this is the last year of such nonsense. Someone wondered recently if the sheriff is re-elected, will he change into a community-minded leader? My thought: Nope. He’ll double down. I’d expect four more years of in-your-face budget diplomacy. By the way, if you haven't yet, please take a look at this missive from Sam Himmel.)

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​— The county has a significant road resurfacing dilemma. For years, we didn’t fund it properly. Now the county is setting aside plenty of money for a regular repaving cycle but can’t find a contractor to perform all the work.

The county is nearly a year behind its resurfacing schedule. A convoluted bidding process, which County Administrator Steve Howard tried to explain, hasn’t helped. The bottom line is the county has $16 million for residential road resurfacing and a low bidder who won’t commit to more than 60% of the job.

Commissioner Jeff Kinnard, in a rare display of direct criticism said, “Somebody needs to put their foot in someone’s behind” to figure out the bureaucracy and get work moving on these roads.

Commissioner Rebecca Bays, the board’s transportation big thinker, had what seems like a brilliant idea.

In a prior government geek blog, I introduced you to SCOP roads. These are resurfacing projects on county collector roads, of which there are many. The state pays 75% of the project so long as our population stays under 200,000. We’re quickly approaching that.

Bays believes we should be placing a higher priority on the SCOP eligible roads that need help now, such as sections of South Apopka Avenue and Gospel Island Road in Inverness. (I can vouch for both. They are truly horrible.) The concern is we’ll hit the 200K population before the worst roads are repaved.

Her thought: Use what can’t be spent on residential roads for the SCOP roads. I realize it’s not that simple, but the idea sure makes sense. Citizens want to see new asphalt on these crumbling county roads.

— That’s your budget lesson for the day. Take an extra 10 minutes of recess on me.

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