Fiscal year 2026 budget overview and county growth
What the county recorded
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 19, 2025
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What was said
Machine transcription of 10m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 100% of 30 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
No, here. Sorry. Rubbing off on me. Um I'm resisting. Okay, so this morning we're gonna talk about our fiscal year 2026 budget and uh I will turn it over to the County President.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I turn it over to Amy, I just want to say thank you to this board and thank you to the team. You know, in the past couple of years, we have really made great strides in providing unparalleled levels of transparency with the board and the public as it comes to how we build and set this budget. And so this workshop is another step in that process whereby there's a lot. Of work that's been going on in the past six, seven months in in building uh what will be the the fiscal year twenty-six budget um and a number of challenges
that uh I think uh Amy here will discuss with the board. We're really looking uh forward to this meeting in order to have your your candid feedback on how we proceed next because our next step will be uh adopting a trim and then we'll head into the budget process in September. So So I won't get too far ahead of my skis there for you, Ms. Amy, but I'll turn it over to our budget director, Amy Lee Farrow.
Good morning, Amy Farrell, Budget Director. Um so like Mike said, we are going to be talking about our the Where we're at so far in providing a proposed budget to the board. Um So this morning we're going to talk about uh a high-level overview of the budget cycle and the process and what that looks like. So we'll talk about what we've accomplished so far in the cycle and what's still left to be done, what work um the team and the board still has to do for this cycle. And when
talking about where we're going, it's very helpful to put some perspective in where we've been, where we've come from. So we're going to show some key data metrics that tell us a story about where we've come as a county. That way we can set the stage for where we're. Headed. Then we're gonna get into the budget, the numbers. We're gonna talk about the different revenue assumptions that are built into the budget we're presenting today. We'll talk about those expense pressures that we're experiencing, and we do have preliminary taxable
assessed value from the property appraiser. So we'll talk about those numbers and how that's impacting our budget. And then we're going to have some key discussions with the board talking about general fund, our different millage rates, and then taking a look at our five-year capital improvement program.
All right. What kind of work have we done already this year? Well, in January, we started with a strategic direction discussion with the board, and when we're looking at our five-year strategic plan, what are those things we should be focused on in this year? And then how do we help build a budget that's gonna align resources to move the needle on that strategic plan? And then we looked at revenues. Did I get louder? I feel like I got louder. It's okay. Um
so when we looked at our major revenues and how those are looking like they're shaking out for this year. Um we had some key discussions around the parks MSTU and um How might that look for us moving forward? And then we met as a team internally and we started going through operating budgets and capital budgets and looking at the submitted requests and really kind of sharpening the pencil, if you will, on those requests to try to be as tight as we can with the limited resources that we're projecting to have coming in. And now we're back here before the board.
For a budget workshop to say, hey, we met in January. We heard you. We think we heard you. Here's where we're looking at now. Did we get it right? Um, if so, yay. But w also what stuff do we need to kind of fine-tune as we move forward before we get to trim, which is happening next month, where we'll set the truth in Millage. And then in September we'll come back for two public hearing to adopt the budget for twenty-six. It's a lot of work. We've done a lot of work, but there's still a lot of work left
to go. All right, so let's talk about where we've come from. So this slide, we did show this, it looked a little bit different. We did work with our media team to try to gussy upper slides a little bit. It's very pretty. I know they did a great job. Love them. But so it's the data's still the same from what we showed previously, but let's talk about it again. So since 2010, our population has grown by 42%, right? So we're showing some some key years for you here. We've
got 2010, 2020, and then 2024. And in that time over that 14 year span, the population has grown by 42%. And so then we have a couple metrics here that show you what has that growth in population meant in terms of demands for our service. So we're looking at single family permits. Those have increased by 644%. Yes, that math is right. Oh it's it's that's a large number, right? But workloads increased, people are coming in, we've seen a lot of new construction
and building growth over the last 14 years. Tons of trash. Um and we look at this a little bit later when we start talking about um key economic indicators and trying to predict where we think we might be headed. Um but our tons of trash has gone up by 31% in 14 years. And then we're looking at utility connections. So this Um this is anywhere from homes getting put online, it could be commercial, but every time we've had to set up new water connections. And so those have grown by 53% in
14 years. So and then we look at 911 calls. And so these are um encompassing law enforcement plus fire rescue and we have seen a jump of 137% in calls for service for law enforcement and our fire team. Um And so we've had to make some key decisions so as a county we can support the growth that we've been seeing. Right? And so, um But from an operating budget standpoint, we have
maintained very efficient and effective levels of funding because we've been able to handle so far the demands of service, And they have far outpaced what our operating budget has grown, because that's only grown by thirty percent. And so this board and previous boards have made some really tough key decisions to make sure that as a staff we're working as effective and efficiently as possible to meet those demands for service while finding balance for our citizens and our businesses
in terms of costs.
That's a great story, that one. All these yeah.
And now, um, back in January, there was a piece of the puzzle that we didn't quite pull together for you yet. But we have it on this slide. So that shows what was our support from an operations standpoint. This shows how have we supported the growth in the county from an investment in our infrastructure. And so here we're looking at We've had eight new fire stations come online in that same 14-year time frame. We've done five rehabilitated fire
stations in that time frame. We have, and so these aren't inclusive of all of the infrastructure investments that the county has made in the last 14 years. We've just brought some key ones, right, that might sound interesting or fascinating, but really kind of help us tell the story. So we've also had some new parks come online. We've got Starkey Ranch District Park, Wesley Chapel District Park, Wiregrass Sports Campus. And so here's some capacity road projects that have also come online in the last 14 years. We saw
Ridge Road expansion. Sun Lake, State Road 54 and 56 widening, I-75 and overpass interchange. We've also seen some investments into our library facilities. Starkey Ranch Library, Wesley Chapel Library, and Land O' Lakes and Regency Park expansions. And then from a utility standpoint, we've seen the Boyette Road Reservoir come online. We've um had the acquisition of FGUA. and East Road Transfer
Station Expansion, just to name a few.
Do we have any questions on this slide?
We um I was just mentioning to the county administrator, we should add um the Clinton Avenue extension and the widening widening of fifty-two.
Okay.
Part of fifty-two anyway.
Team, you got that note, please.
All right.
been meeting demands for service, demands for infrastructure, supporting a growing county. And we have done that by maintaining a level of affordability for our citizens and our businesses. And that's what this slide right here tells the story about. The first number we're looking at is our average total property tax millage rates. And so this is a ranking from 1 to 67 for the 67 counties, and we are at 28. We have lower property tax millage rates than Pinellas, Hillsboro,
and the state average. And then when we look at the next graphic, that middle one, we're looking at our per capita county government property tax levies. So these are just county county taxes. And we again are ranked
Lower than it it might seem counterintuitive because we're technically higher, but it means that our um per capita county government property tax levies are lower again than Hillsboro, Pinellas, and the state average. And then when we look at our per capita taxable value, again we are lower than Pinellas, Hillsboro, and the state average. So our board over the years has maintained lower millage rates. even though they've had lower taxable values. And that really tells the story that we have been trying to push the
needle as efficient and effectively as we possibly can over the years.