OMB-21-0037

Every appearance1 of 1 are in a recording

TranscriptWhat was said at each appearance is below it. Machine transcription, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 100% of 54 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.

1. 1Jul 6, 2021
   Board of County CommissionersR69Regular businessApproved

   Approved minutes

   Approved Staff’s recommendation.

   Open this item →▶ Play from 39:06
   ▶ 39:0613m

   Bob

   39:06Good morning. Good morning, Bob Corey, Pasco County Budget Director. If we could have the slides, please. Good morning. Uh the objective of this uh item is to set the tentative millage rates for the truth and millage mailings that will go out to all county taxpayers in August. Uh next slide please. Uh but before we get to setting the tentative millage rates, we did receive the final taxable assessed values from the property appraiser on July 1st, and I would like to go through those numbers and give

   39:36you the impact. of what has happened between preliminary and final. So as you can see comparing 2021 to 2022, the final taxable assessed values increased by about $3.4 billion to over $35 billion overall. Next please.

   39:57You can see the new construction was really a big factor that played into this increase in taxable assess values. New construction, the assessed values, and that have been increasing every year since 2014. Next, please. You can see there was minimal change between the preliminary and final taxable assessed values between the preliminary that we received on June 1st and the finals that we received on July 1st. The increase was 10.81%. There's very

   40:27little change here. The main difference is that in the preliminary taxable assessed values, we do not receive the breakouts for the CR. CRAs and the TIFFs. Instead, we internally estimate what those will be. And so in July we got the actual values for the CRAs and the TIFS, and you can see they changed a little bit, resulting in about $1 million in additional revenues for the board in the general fund. Next please.

   40:59So we are currently recommending no change in the operating millage rate and the fire MSTU millage. As you are aware, under the Save Our Homes provisions of the Florida Constitution, the value of homesteaded properties cannot increase by more than 3%, or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. The current rate of inflation we're using for homesteaded properties is 1.4%. So for a typical uh single-family home of valued at $150,000, that's homesteaded.

   41:29If we uh subtract the standard exemptions of $50,000 to have a hundred thousand dollar taxable value, the uh Property taxes for that typical single-family home would increase by ten dollars and sixty-five cents, not because there was a change in the millage rate, which there is no change in the property tax. They increased simply because their home had a higher value in 22 than it did the year before. And for non-homesteaded properties, uh non-homesteaded

   41:59properties, the value of homesteaded non-homested properties cannot increase by more than 10%. So if we take that same $150,000 home, the property taxes for that home would increase by just over $114 per year. Next please. Thank

   Emergency Management

   42:16you.

   Bob

   42:17If we look at the fire MSTU between June and July, it increased from 11.92% increased to 11.93%, which yielded an additional $6,000 in the fire fund to $6.18 million. Next, please.

   42:38Now if we look at the TIFFs, we can see again in June 1st, we didn't receive those from the property appraiser, so we estimated those. Overall, the TIFFs is $28.7 million, with the bulk of that going to the countywide TIFF, which is currently being used for transportation-related projects. Next, please. Here we have the community redevelopment areas. The county contributes or will contribute next year $3.5 million to the city CRAs in an effort

   43:08to assist the cities in eliminating eliminating slum and blight in their CRA areas. Next, please.

   43:17Uh the recommended action, uh first we'd ask you to approve the tentative millage race that you see here before you and set the first public hearing for September 13th, 5:15 p.m. in Dade City. You'll notice the main difference between last year and this year is the three voter-approved debt millages that we uh just closed one this morning and that we have since closed since last year. And so that's the main difference between the military rates from last year and this year. And with that,

   43:48I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

   OakleyChair

   43:51Anybody have any questions?

   StarkeyVice Chair

   43:55Well are you gonna speak?

   County Administrator

   43:58Yes, ma'am, just to respond to some of the public comments this morning. Obviously, you know, three months ago we were working through some things in the fire MSTU to to add additional things to the budget and that at that point we weren't sure what the property was appraised with assessed values were gonna be. You know, 10% a 10% increase which which is which is what the board could do. a four one vote you need unanimous to do anything more than that. Roughly it's about four million dollars. And as you notice the MSTU

   44:28increase is actually twelve million, twelve percent which was rough resulted in over six million increase in the MSTU itself.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   44:37Where's it? Is it on?

   County Administrator

   44:40So and just as a reminder, the board over the last few years, you you've opened a new fire station that was the newest fire station in a over a decade. And so the new dis first new district in the county in over a decade, station 38. You have another brand new one under construction with the bond that went to the voters. You're actually building four new fire stations, two of which will open in the upcoming fiscal year, nine and three. So effectively you're adding two new engines and two. New rescues to those two fire stations. We're also recommending you add another in rescue at station 30.

   45:11And so with the new budget, with the recommendation that we are making, you're still adding three new rescues to the to your system, you're adding two new engines, you are adding a significant amount of capability in your fire program. Not necessarily everything, you know, obviously that uh the fire department wants, the fire chief wants, but I think at this point you're in a sustainable business model today, especially with the twelve percent increase in edible arm values, which resulted in the over six

   45:42million dollars that for the additional MSTU. So I think some of the concerns you heard today were actually on the rescue side. That's actually the general fund funded item, you know, and we're working through the the revenue from the ambulance billing to to work with that. But you are adding three new rescues as part of that, which would should help our utilization rate and our response times. So those three are in the budget and will be coming online next year. Yeah. If if we added another rescue, you're running up against some training capabilities and whether or not we can actually get people to train

   46:12in i in the fiscal year to actually bring them on. So that those are some of the limits in the pipeline, not just funding.

   OakleyChair

   46:20Okay.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   46:21Um when I met with the firefighters there was a l they had a list of things they were looking for and when I met with you it looked like we were gonna be able to Um get some of those things on that list. Yes, ma'am. And

   County Administrator

   46:35some of those are on the the BPI list that uh that will be approved as part of the MSTU uh budget.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   46:41And then we can get some more off that list next year.

   County Administrator

   46:44Yes ma'am I mean I got the new through through the end of June uh we've actually exceeded new single family residential permits that you built in all of 2019 and probably within the next 30 to 60 days will exceed what you build in all of 2020. So I don't expect that the property values increase in 2023 will be less than what you just received for 2020. budget based on the construction activity that's happening today.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   47:15Okay, I j I just want them to know we are going to be getting a significant amount of things off your list and then we'll work on on it again next year.

   County Administrator

   47:24And you know, I I was gonna wait for good news items, but one of the good news, you know, things that the fire rescue has been working on is CASA creditation. We got news late last week that they passed and were approved and now our CASA credited unit on the rescue site. So that was On my good news list, I'll go ahead and give it to you now since we're talking about it. So there are a lot of good things happening. We are a department that is making significant strides forward. And mentioned a lot of things, we haven't even mentioned the improvements we've made for the firefighters themselves from you know the salary

   47:54perspective and how we are relative to our peers now. In addition to you've implemented a six-week Kelly Day, which didn't exist four years ago. So I mean there's been a lot of improvements. Improvements that you have made for fire rescue, you know, not just for the county, but also for the men and women who actually work in the department.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   48:11Yeah, I just just want everyone to know that we are committed to moving towards that premiere. Um it we can't do it in one year, but we're taking big chunks every year.

   County Administrator

   48:21Yes, ma'am. I agree. Yeah. I agree.

   Mariano

   48:24Mr. Mary, I want to back up the administrator too. I mean our our firefighters, EMS teams, they've done a phenomenal job for many, many years. Um Chief, you've done a great job leading everybody every step of the way. We are s striving for Premier every step of the way. Respect the job you guys do, but with the budget we're working on, we might get not get it all this year, but hopefully by next year we'll we'll finish it off.

   Justin Ressler

   48:44Yeah.

   OakleyChair

   48:46Okay, flight boards.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   48:48Mr. Chairman I um make a comment about the budget?

   OakleyChair

   48:51Yes, you can.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   48:52Thank you, sir. Um first I wanted to uh thank the commission for directing the county attorney to meet with uh myself and also county administration and my legal counsel to discuss the legal support for my budget request. And I also wanted to thank uh County Administrator Biles for Meeting with me last week on Wednesday to go over what is going to be put into the budget for my office. It wasn't presented

   49:23in the slides, however, my understanding with meeting with the county administrator that for my IT budget request that county administration acknowledges that the commission is has a legal obligation. To fund it and that they are funding it at 40% of the request. Um, I just wanted to state that funding at 40% of the request is inadequate to meet the needs of my office and the requirements of the law. And then I I am requesting full funding in fiscal

   49:53year 22. And um at the June 8th Board of County Commissioners.

   Moore

   50:00Mr. Chairman M and I'm sorry and I respect you to no end, but this is we cannot have these conversations with this is this is the board actually debating the budget. If we're gonna have allow all constitutionals to debate their budget requests, we have to bring all of them in here and have that. That's not policy. We have to stick with the policy we've had all the years of a commission. So if we're gonna open that up, we have to ha open it up to every constitutional office to come here during

   50:31our debate and have input. I'm just we can't get away from how we've done things in the past and we have to move forward. If we're gonna move forward with that, we have to set that policy previous prior to the meeting and invite them all to have that discussion at the podium. in debate the budget. But this is commissioners debate at this time on the trim.

   County Administrator

   50:58Right.

   Moore

   51:02Right. And I'm just like this is not the place for us to have that debate without allowing the other constitutionals the same opportunity.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   51:10This is an item that's coming before the board on a public matter.

   Moore

   51:14But this is this is Commissioner Debate now.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   51:19So any constitutional would be able to come and speak to this matter even if they were to come on public comment, similar to the uh fire rescue here today.

   Moore

   51:28Correct, but not during when we're having our debate.

   OakleyChair

   51:32We're discussing the voting on a premium notice map.

   StarkeyVice Chair

   51:36All right, so um I'll wait so I make my comments during miscellaneous business. Thank you.

   OakleyChair

   51:41Okay. Rags of the world.

   Moore

   51:48Move approval.

   OakleyChair

   51:49Second. Okay. That's what I was looking for. Thank you. All right, I got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed five zero. Thank you. Thank you, Bob.

   Bob

   52:01Thank you.