General fund and transportation trust fund millage rates
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 17, 2024
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 17, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 1h 20m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 79% of 303 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Okay. In accordance with the Florida statute. Of two zero zero. Point zero six five. The first issue to be discussed is the recommended millage rates and the percentage changes in the rollback rates.
Yeah, I can go ahead and get sure.
Evening Commissioners. Eric Breitenbach, Assistant County Administrator for Internal Services. Chairman, members of the board, the aggregate millage rate as advertised on the trim notices was 10.2645 MILS, which represents an eleven point three four percent increase from the aggregate rolled back rate of nine point two one nine two MILs. The reason the aggregate millage rate is higher is because the total taxable value increased between last year and this year, generating additional revenue levied for the same millage
rate. Table one in your handout shows the millage rates for the various county levies and a comparison of the recommended millage rates to the rolled back rates in the prior year adopted millage millage rates. Rather than read this chart into the record, we have provided copies to each commissioner, board records, and members of the audience. At the first public hearing on the budget, the Board of County Commissioners adopted a budget based upon the millage rates used in the trim notices each property owner
received. The only change from the proposed budget set in July to the tentative budget set during the first public hearing is that the Board reduced the Parks Capital Maintenance MSTU from 0.1712 mils to 0.1. zero point zero zero zero zero mills.
I'd like to give a brief summary of the General Fund and Transportation Trust Fund budgets, stating the millage rates, the percentage change from the rolledback rate, and the reasons for such a change. The millage rate for the general fund is 7.4292 MILLs, which is a 5.08 percent increase from the rolled back rate of 7.0703. The millage rate is a reduction from last year's millage rate and is a result of the board's direction from this morning's board
meeting. The County realized a 14.1% increase in taxable assessed values over the past year. Compared to the current year, the general fund expenditure budget represents an increase of $87 million. The main factors for this include fully funding the Sheriff's Budget Request, including 20 additional deputies. Implementing phase one of the D shift for rescue personnel. Operational expenditures for the expanded detention center,
wage increases for the PBA and IAFF unions, and a wage increase based on a compensation and classification study for Board and Constitutional Officers employees. Prior action by the Florida Legislature eliminated the requirement for a mandatory transportation ad valorem tax. No transportation millage was levied last year and we propose no millage be assessed this year for the transportation fund. I would ask that the Board accept general accept public comment and then vote on the
General Fund and the Transportation Trust Fund Millage Rates and Associated Budgets. The minimum vote to levy the General Fund Millage Rate is a simple majority or three votes according to maximum millage rate calculations.
Okay. Does anyone wish to speak to the board regarding the general fund and transportation trust fund? Madam, do we have uh people signed up?
We do, sir. Um so I am going to call um you to the podium. I'm gonna kind of do it three at a time. So if you hear your name, just stand in line in the order that I call you. When you come to the podium, please give your name and address for the record and then you can speak. Um you'll have your three minutes. All right, so the first three that I'm going to call are Christopher Nelson, Peggy Byrne, and Daniel Loffer.
Name and address for the clerk.
Uh my my name is Christopher Nelson. I'm uh [address removed]. Um I'm the Vice President for West Pasco Girls Fast Fed Softball Association. Um I'm here on behalf of the general fund for the parks and rec portion of this. Um Our league's been around for over thirty years. We moved from Oak Ridge to Starkey Ranch District Park. Um thank you all for voting for that field to go in there. Um We went over there under the stipulation that, you know, Parkson Rick was going great and everything's going great. We
get over there and we got one field taken away 'cause baseball needs one of the fields. Well that means that we don't have no baseball fields apparently, 'cause we were supposed to have four fields go from two to four so we could increase and now we can't increase. We have over almost three hundred girls signed up, twenty-two teams last year, just for our West Pasco girls fast fetch alone. You know, so It's great, houses are being built, but the infrastructure needs to be along with it and I don't think Parks and Rec's infrastructure has enough money and enough resources for them to do what needs to be done right
now. Our youth is the the next generation, you know. Um if our youth doesn't have anywhere to go, where are they gonna go? They can be on the streets causing trouble. They can be on computers There's sex trafficking, there's predators. I'd rather have them at the ball fields. Or some kind of a youth program. The other thing is I mean there's Forty five baseball fields and twelve girls' softball fields. I mean I think girls use sports is getting under rated in this whole entire thing. Drew Street and Pasco in uh Penellas County. Whole entire street is
girls fast based softball. ESPN puts on A girls fast b fast pitch for the whole college is down there, you know. I mean they bring in all this stuff. There's just a lot that we could do. Me and my wife went up to
We secured the bid for the 2026 World Series to come here to Starkey Ranch District Park. So we now have the World Series coming here. We can do a lot. We can help Pasco County, but We need help from Pasco County to help Parks and Rec and Parks and Rec to help us. in order for all this to happen and it just doesn't seem like there's a That's happening. It seems like there's a disconnect somewhere along the pathways because, you know, I uh we've tried, we're doing everything and it just doesn't seem to be working. We're getting kicked back saying there's not enough people to do the fields,
there's not enough this, there's not enough that. We don't have this, we don't have that. So m I parks rec needs money. Your time's up. No
no he has another machine.
You know, families are gonna be moving in You know Like I said, I think that's a good thing. I we we secured twenty twenty six we can bring in the state tournament, we can bring in World Series, we can bring in tournaments, we can bring in all this stuff, but We gotta have Parks and Rec and we gotta have help in order to do all this stuff. So I'm I'm asking that you help what I enjoy, which is th th the youth of our next generation and help us to Help them have a little bit of a parks and recreation athletic fields and everything else to go to so that we can uh continue what we're doing. So Thank you
all for your time and I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
We will try again next year. I'm sorry it went to zero, but we'll try again next year.
Go in. Next. Name and address, please.
Hello, my name is Peggy Byrne, B Y R N E [address removed].
So the millage rate proposed is an increase. It's too high. The answer to that should be no. Perhaps the reality of what homeowners are facing has escaped all but Commissioner Weightman and Mariano. Everything is going up, folks, and our infrastructure is inadequate. TCOB need only ask for more money and it seems to be given. For the record, it's not the taxpayer's job to help TICO perform better. The last rate increases were so it was prepared for hurricane season. Since
little of those monies were used for that, the rate should have decreased. It did not. Now we have the sheer stupidity of comments like this. Rate hikes will help insulate customers from higher costs. It's just ridiculous. And we have to wonder if that CEO obviously had gone to the same wor word saddled school as Kam Kamala Harris. Also uh since Tico's a foreign owned uh corporation, the county gave them an interest-free loan the last time. They should have been told to go and
get an American bridge loan, like all American companies do. So why is everything going up in this county? The answer to that seems simple. Overdevelopment. under the guise of a master plan. There are many residents that have attended both Planning Board and County Commissioner's meetings where every public comment was against what was being presented. You, the commissioners, voted for them time and time again. We have lost much acreage in the rural protection zone to developers like Wilton Simpson,
who buy the land cheap. and then get it rezoned by his friends that would be you. in order to fill his coffers. We need a moratorium on building so services and infrastructure can catch up. We can then charge developers for all of the upgrades that require, not just some of them, and taxpayers are left to clean up the mess. Going online, it is particularly offensive when you, the commissioners, list the core values of Pasco County, including this little gem. We
place our citizens and customers first. That is baloney. And frankly It means that the County Commissioners are ignoring the wishes of their constituents and are indeed violating the core values of the county. Please do not think that taxpayers have not noticed. We have, and you would be wrong. I hope that you'll look at your costs in the future and live within your means. You are making the taxpayers of this county have to live within their means. People that are born and raised in this county, and I've met
quite a few. I'm not from here. It saddens me to see people telling me and hear t people telling me they have to move out because they can't afford to live in this county. That is through the management of what the county commissioners are doing here. Please find a way to reduce your costs, but do support things that re that support safety like the police and obviously the corrections offices that are here tonight. Safety is pivotal for everybody. Thank you.
Thank you.
My name's Daniel Offer. I live at [address removed]. And Last year I paid four thousand three hundred dollars for road repaving in front of my house. Now in Pasco County, the roads will be included in the tax bill this year. So my question is, I will be getting, will I be getting a refund because I made a full payment for the roads that under the new tax law I would have paid for 10
to 15 years worth of taxes. If the new tax law goes into effect this year, I will be paying double taxes for years. I also heard people who decided to put over ten years with a lien on their house will be taken off and they'll start fresh with a new tax law. The lien taken off and start n I'm a retired. on a fixed income. And it's not fair to be double charged. When we take the money out of our little
savings. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you.
It's
Do you want to address
that?
Yeah.
Well
we can butt.
Yeah, because someone else may have that same question.
Go ahead and address it We we can address that during the presentation if the board likes. Okay. Okay.
Okay, so the next three individuals signed up are Jessica Haskins, followed by Stephanie Polk, then Joseph Ladaro Junior.
Name and address for the clerk.
My name is Jessica Hoskins. It's [address removed].
Go ahead. Um I'm on I'm here on behalf of the Nature Coast Bolts Football Association. Um we are a little new and up-and-coming football organization out of Shady Hills. We have been operating out of a lease Logan. I'm not here to complain, I'm not here to beg for anything, I just want to show our appreciation that we have been able to purchase a dilapidated league and now turn it into something that's been such an inspiration to Shady Hills. Shady Hills is not an affluent neighborhood. We have been bringing tons of kids into our organization.
We started last year with over ninety kids. We took those ninety kids and we took an eight year team to the state championship in one second place. We also have our cheerleaders who went in one regionals. From our success, we are now at 159 this year, with sponsoring over 30%. It's over $15,000 of our funds that we are paying for these kids to be there that are off the streets. What we're asking for is just a little bit of help to see if we can update Shady Hills back behind the baseball
fields. Other than our commissioner, I'm not sure if you have been back there. It is a little slice of heaven. It is so peaceful back there. We are there five to six nights a week with these kids, and we have our concession stand. Our concession stands doesn't have screens. Our flies are coming through, and some of the food that these children are eating, that's their only home cooked meal at our concession field at night. We are in need of our scoreboard that is gonna that needs to be fixed because we have our first home game coming up, and these kids love seeing their scores on that scoreboard.
But we don't have that. We don't even have pads for our upright. So we don't know if we're gonna get fined from our organization if we don't have the pads on there. And we understand that. We're gonna make do, we're gonna keep going. The league is up and running. Another thing we wanted to bring forth is since we won the second place in the state last year, that elite organization has asked us to host a spring tournament, which brings in over 5,000 people on a weekend. And to do that in Shady
Hills would be incredible. But we only have one field, which we understand, but we can branch out. But I can't imagine all the hotel, all the restaurants around here, what that would do for three months of games. So we're just asking if you can go visit it, see what you can do to help us out. If not, we understand, but we want to make sure that these kids have a safe environment and make sure that our league grows immensely, because we are all about sponsoring the kids that we don't turn anybody away. Even if we don't have that fun, we're out there shaking the helmets, we're out there doing fundraisers as much as we can. But we
just wanted to say thank you for allowing us to go in there. And we'll make do with what we have. But if there is any way that you can help us update it to make it look like baseball, that would be amazing. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Is your
email and contact information on this sheet?
Because I will get in touch with you. I will come visit. I appreciate it. Thank you. Uh Nature Coast Bolts. And I've got some ideas for you.
Okay. Thank
you. Thank you very much.
Thank
you.
Do you have her name
there?
I do. Yeah, one or two here.
Hi, I'm Stephanie Polk. I'm the president from Dade City Little League and with me is Melissa Scholler. Sorry. Melissa Scholler, Vice President of Dade City Little League. Um, I'm not sure if what we're here to talk about has already been discussed, and that's I'm piggybacking off the first people that talked. Um We have been running Dade, we have not been running Dade City Little League, but Dade City Little League has been in the system over 70 years. Um over 40 years ago, we were given a little piece of property
off. um Jean Nelson Boulevard called Burke's Park. Um we have we had 325 students or not sorry I'm a teacher too. 325 players last year made us 26 teams functioning off four. only four fields. Of the nine that we have. There are we say nine, there are technically eight because field six became a soccer uh field. But of those eight fields,
we were only allowed to use four. We were told that having eight teams of sa of softball was not enough to warrant having two fields for that. Um We have been told over and over during the district tournaments that we host. The regional tournaments that we host, how great our park would be to host tournaments. When I've reached out and asked about how to go about doing that. We haven't really gotten much information on that, but
it's something we'd like to do and something we'd like to offer. And as the previous person said, it brings in a lot of money. Not just for our league but for the county, for the hotels, for the restaurants, but there are things that we need to be able to do. Um
We are fighting for our part versus adult players, adult leagues, and travel ball. And what's gonna happen is if we don't really get a better I don't know, handle over our park and over our fields, we're gonna be overrun by travel ball and we're not gonna be able to s sustain.
You still have a minute. You still have one minute.
We do need people. It's hard to talk to anybody at you know, at parks and recreation when everybody leaves at three. Um we just found out that on occasion we can ask for someone to stay on the weekend, like if we have a tournament or something. But it's really hard to run a league when you can't really talk to anybody after three o'clock. Um, when we've had issues with people coming in and being disrespectful or trying to take over the league um park that is being rented out by us or other use other things
like that. Um we gave up our batting cages. We were told that we would get new ones. We don't have new batting cages. We have no place for them to warm up on the below acre or the below fields that we have. So there's just a lot of things that we really need your attention on and hope that you'll actually just to get our fields back. Yeah.
All s all eight uh eight of 'em.
As much as we can. Thank you.
Yeah.
Please manager. Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Joseph Lopardo. I live at [address removed]. Um and congratulations, Commissioner Yeager, on your victory in the primaries. Um I feel a little embarrassed to be here for my little problem that I have, but I think that it will encompass more things if I get this out. Basically it's gonna be involved with road paving again. Um Let's see. I moved here in eighty-eight. I've been in the house that
I'm at since ninety-eight, so twenty-six years. Um Debbie hit in 08, I think it was, and the roads got demolished. They came and resurfaced in my area. Cypress Lakes, which is Mitchell Boulevard, that area. And they neglected to do my road. I have all the documentation and all the paperwork and Google Maps and all that stuff. But basically the road didn't get done. And then over time we have documented over a thousand vehicles a day traveling by my house, so much so that I came in last year and requested a s three way stop sign be put in. at Cypress Lakes and Sawgrass, which the
county did. realized it needed it and they put it in just to kind of slow traffic down. But they didn't do anything about the road paving and all that. Now we have of course the rainy season has come. And we have a debacle with the roads, as you know. I know everybody's on the east side taking care of the flooding as Ephra Hills and they're kind of not doing the west side right now, fixing potholes and whatnot. But what's happening is the road's crumbling up. Uh patch and it's just not gonna work anymore. And I know that we have reassessed the way we do our paving. I think what I would like to do is at least find out if I can get on
the list to get my road paved and the surrounding area paved correctly. And my question to you guys is do you have a schedule for road paving? Do we have any of that going on? Because maybe I just need to go right to traffic, which I've talked to them before and Road and Bridge. I can't really get an answer out of them because they'll say, Well, it's six weeks out before we can patch the road. And we don't know when your roads are going to be paved. And there's a schedule. Is there a schedule? Is there somebody that I could talk to in Rhode and Bridge other than Bother and the manager? I'll let somebody take care of it. Okay, I appreciate
that. That's all I have. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. Ramford.
Okay. Next person.
So then the next individual did not leave their name, but the organization is Florida Free State, followed by Daniel Hagan and then Janine Duffy. Actually, my name's on there. It says on file, sir. That
was my address, but I gave my name. My name is Brian Parris. It says my address is on file.
But uh anyway, uh Brian Paris on file, my address. I I disagree with raising any fees against we the people. We've already struggling in this economy. It's ridiculous. I know if I'm a small business owner that if I ran my business like you guys run the county, I would be in default. So I can't go to other people and say, hey, can you help me with my bus mismanagement of my business skills because oh I just spent too much? And then I
would have to show an audit. How come we never get an audit from our government? Of where our money goes. We're taking in the most taxes we've ever taken in in the history of this county. And we're watching our land be destroyed as someone who's from here, second generation. I've watched my county get destroyed. I know this is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I know it's not, though, because it's a government of the development. And the developers. It's
disgusting what is going on, man. This is ridiculous. Our taxpaying money, where it says in the Constitution, actually is voluntary. It's supposed to go to public safety and infrastructure. And yeah, we should pay all our first responders and thank God for them and I appreciate them and and thank you each and every first responder for your service. But it it it is not supposed to go to, oh let's let's develop this and do that. No. And it's also infrastructure. One of you guys stated last year it takes eight years
to get a road done. Why aren't we developing on the same timeline? I feel like I live in New York Pasco County. It's ridiculous. Soon we're all gonna be on top of each other. Hey man, you got I know we're in we're we're peasants now and we just have a little bit of food, but you got this maybe barter with you. Like it's ridiculous. We're all gonna be in the parks sleeping. We we need the parks, so in case we do have to go sleep in 'em. It's ridiculous. Come on, man. In this economy we shouldn't be raising nothin' on anybody.
There's people out there barely s getting food. You see on Facebook posts all the time, hey, You know, I'm trying to feed my kids. Has anybody got a few dollars? But yep here we're gonna raise fees and taxes on people? Come on, man. It's real and then last year when you all stated during the China virus lockdowns that you guys never locked anybody down or forced anybody to wear masks, this isn't obviously for the people who were who were elected after that. So but From small business owners, we closed the easy. for takeout only during
the China during the virus mandates around forty days per guidelines and then open after that twenty five percent capacity, then fifty percent capacity. We definitely took a hit. One of my employees, Kristen Parrish, was up laid off. But one of you stated that you never shut any businesses down and were never forced to wear masks, and that's a lie. I'm calling that out. You're wrong, 'cause people were shut down. And then this is we gotta develop I I'm actually and then I stated we shouldn't we should have a moratorium
on development, but someone also stated that's illegal. Well what's illegal is taxation without representation and we need to not develop so much right now. It's ridiculous. I know I'm um,
yes, sir.
If you continue clapping then you might have to be leaving the room. So
Go ahead, sir. Uh my name is Daniel Hagan. I'm here to represent the uh Police Benevolent Association. Um good evening County Commissioners. On behalf of the uh P D A address one two four eight four.
Wait, wait, you might be protected.
Oh, are you protected? Yes.
Thank you. Excuse me. I don't don't need to know where you live. On behalf of the Police Menevolent Association, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for your unwavering support to our Corrections Department. Your dedication to ensuring that our correctional officers and staff have the resources they need to succeed is both invaluable and deeply appreciated. The work we do is challenging, but it is only made possible by your continued support and the fact that you have recognized the importance of investing in public safety. Your continued commitment
to providing the necessary funding, staffing, and tools directly impacts the safety and well being of the first.
But the entire community. We know the public service requires tough decisions. And we are incredibly fortunate to have leadership that prioritizes well being of both our personnel and the public that we serve. Your support allows us to create an environment where our correctional officers and staff can do their best work for our community each and every day.
Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to the safety and success of our community.
Thank
you.
Uh Ms. Janine Duffy? Okay, there you are.
Janine Duffy, [address removed]. Um I actually just have a bunch of questions, whether you answer or not, it doesn't really matter. Um I'm looking for more itemized expenses and um, you know, all the way down to what our our trucks how much gas they use or what the salaries are or Mm. Where all the money actually does go, where can I find that information? Where can everybody find
that information? I don't I can't seem to find it on the website or anywhere around that. Also, I know you've heard about the condo crisis, so I'm curious how many people here in Pasco County. Are now suffering from those insatiable assessments and how many of those people are elderly. I also would like to uh say that
I spent my Saturday night, Kid Free, uh, listening to the Affordable Housing Workshop. I hope you all remember it. It's really fresh in my mind. You were explained for quite some time, even though it was May 3rd, I believe, May 21st, you were deeply explained how bad the affordable housing situation is. in this county for the people that work at these convenience stores
and these fast food restaurants and the school bus drivers and the teachers and the people that clean your houses. And so when you decide to raise anything, you need to realize that you're part of what's going to put people on the street, more of them. A lot more of them. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Okay, so the next three individuals signed up are Tom Salado, Melissa Jones, and Christy Zimmer.
Good evening, Commissioner. Uh my name is Thomas Salado, [address removed]. That's in [address removed]. That's Pasco County side. Um there's been a lot said already that I don't I'm not gonna repeat, so I'm gonna ad lib a little bit. But my home or many homes in this county have aged 40 years or more have seen a significant increase in property taxes and value. thus creating a significant increase
in the property tax assessment. This without consideration of any new homes being built. Where is the surplus of that money going and can we be more prudential and the use of that surplus and funding. Developers have received a record number of tax savings, incentives, and impact fee deferments. Commercial businesses have received forgivable loans. with 0.5% interest rates, unmet conditions, with no accountability. This loss of
tax revenue has put the additional tax burden on the residents. Pasco County is no longer a county where we need to incentivize any building. We should be cr controlling our growth. not jeopardizing our rural landscape. and we should be preserving our natural resources. There stands many vacant buildings, both new and old, that can be incentivized to improve, repurpose, and renovate without the environmental impact that new construction has been having on our county. As
you review the budget today, I would ask that the Commission consider not increasing taxes again. Over the last six years, my tax bill has increased thirty percent. With the proposed tax increase considered today, my tax bill have increased another ten percent from last year. The affordability of paying my taxes is not my issue. I must make it afford I I make it affordable because I must. When discussing today's budget items, please consider the sacrifices
other families are making, or are they creating additional debt? to help pay their bills and just get by. I support fire and rescue. I support our jails and our sheriff's department. Those services we need. Our county parks It's a very low amount. We should also be considering that. We need to be looking in other areas to trim. to make Count Pasco County a better place. Thank you.
Hi, my name is Melissa Jones. I live at [address removed]. Um I wanna piggyback off of what he had just said um about the taxes. I too my my taxes have significantly uh increased also. Um in holiday we have a uh really A safety concern. Um we b a high crime rate there. Um I know that I I live in a cul-de-sac. I mean, not too long ago I was m mowing
my front lawn and I had somebody um come into my yard. Um he had a cell phone saying that somebody was trying to kill him and he needed a place to hide. Um I I told him to call 911. Um I know that there's been a lot of break-ins, um car break-ins, um Uh there doesn't seem to be any, you know, patrols. I don't know if it's because we don't have the funding for it. Um b also the infrastructure If you take sun ray, their potholes are huge on
a certain section of sun ray. Um you kinda have to avoid them because y you'll blow your tire out. Uh there was also a sinkhole that or a depression that had opened up on Darlington just past the the bridge. Um And that seems to
with rock. It hasn't been paved over or anything like that. Um, so it is kind of hard to get home to go I mean unfortunately for me I work from home and I'm not out that often, but when I do go out I I wanna be able to utilize the the road without my car, you know, breaking um a t a tire or whatever. the undercarriage.
I'll make it brief. This is my first rodeo. Thank you, Commissioners. I appreciate it.
Okay. Thank you for your comments.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Christy Zimmer. My address is on your record. I am a realtor of 37 years. We are taxing our people out of their homes. The people who are having to sell right now are because their taxes have increased s exponentially along with their homeowners' insurance. Granted, that's not your ballyhoo, but the taxes are.
The assessed values that we're working with right now are grossly inflated. And even though we may have a 3% Save Our Homes cap on there, it's not helpful when the assessments are so high. It's not forgiving at all. Your forgivable loans and the tax abatements are creating a bigger impact and burden on the taxpayers. Parks. I hear these people complaining that they are not getting the money for the parks. Yet we have three line items for parks. Where is the money going? If you're gonna spend millions of dollars to purchase
the property at 52 and 41 that Pinellas County owns under ELAMP using park money that we don't need to have to purchase, that because they're paying us taxes on that land, why would we want to buy it? Why aren't we diverting that money back into the recreation facilities in the parks where it belongs? We don't need that property for E-Lamp. I don't know if that one's still on the table, but it has been for a long time. Two years ago, Mike Wells came to you guys and told you it was a good time to reduce the millage rates, but y'all decided
not to and got greedy and decided to keep the money. And now, with all the overburden of the super development that's going on, there should not be a question of a tax base need. Need, but yet the current residents of Pasco County are having to foot that bill. I would suggest that we tighten our purse strings, cut out the wasteful spending. I don't know. What other person in this room is making a hundred thousand plus on a part-time basis like you guys are? So we all need to cut back. Maybe
we should start with you. Thank
you.
No clapping.
So there is no one else signed up. There are two on WebEx. Do you want to take those first before you call for the public?
Is there anyone in the room that would like to speak that did not sign up? Come forward and line up. Okay.
And and when you come to the uh podium, name and address for the record, uh, and then you'll have your three minutes. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Good evening everybody. My name is Nagesh and my ad Oops.
It's okay.
My address is [address removed]. So I am the president of Tampa Premier League. We are an organizing body for cricket, and we have been doing this for the last uh seven to eight years. I understand all the economic decisions you take and the inflation and all those things. But we have been in the crisis situation since we started. We have been playing cricket on a marshy field, a catchment area basically, where water gets and collected. There are a lot of
putholes and there is a lot of things that are going on. We started with about six teams and now we have moved to sixty teams. Six
zero.
Six zero. We have constantly asked for help with the cricket field for the last eight to nine years and we have been just not getting that help.
We have been requested for youth tournaments and youth people that the houses are getting built on 54, 56, and so on and so forth, and uh the population has been increasing. But there is no support to play the sport. Uh cricket is now an Olympic sport. Um, it has been part of the World Cup. United States have done well in cricket recently. And uh when we have seeing so much of population growth and demand growth, but there has been no support for cricket. So I request the county commissioner
to think a little bit for the cricket as a sport as well, because we have been trying to uh play cricket in uh Pasco County. And for all the houses that have been growing. There's just one park, which is Wesley Chapel District Park, which have we have been sharing it with other sports and apart from that we have been playing on the marshyland, which is not fit to play cricket. But we are still playing there because we don't have any choice. So I request uh all of us all of you to just look into it in your budgetary decisions
and we are there to help you out as well. So that is my request. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.
It's uh Ryan Pryor at [address removed]. My name is Ryan Pryor and I'm the owner of Pryor Baseball Farm. Just really here to just talk a little bit about the parks in general. Been a business owner, been in the community about 20 years, been in business 15 years doing baseball. We work with thousands of kids throughout the year in baseball and softball. Um one of the issues that I have with the the parks in general or just needing more parks
really at the end of the day are things like when registration starts and this is a perfect example at Wesley Chapel, registration goes out to the communities of the players from the previous season. They open up registration, registration's open, it's closed within ten minutes because the previous, like if it was fall season, they mark it to fall season, spring is filled up. So any new residents coming into the community are locked out. Wesley Chapel, I know, right now, probably has two to three hundred on their waiting list. Okay. So those are two or three hundred kids that were losing
to Hillsburg County. not getting engaged and this tonight might not just be baseball. This could be lots of sports. I don't know. Um I'm speaking on behalf of the the baseball community. So that's just one scenario of not having facilities for kids as an outlet. One of the things that I believe in in within my company is that if there's a problem, there's an opportunity. So what we've done is we've actually started the prior farm league. We pilot we piloted the league in 23. We launched it this summer uh at Land O' Lakes as a satellite. We had 135 kids in the
program. So we're running seasons outside of the Little League seasons. And now we're going out and reaching out to the little leagues and meeting with them to see during their off season if we can run our farm league, which is a different format, which I won't get into. It's a development program. for education and for development within the sport. So it complements the leagues to put the kids back into the leagues. better equipped to play. That's just trying to solve the problem when the fields are not being used. We try to use them and develop to complement the leagues, because that's
the best we can do. But we do need more parks in the in Pasco County in general for a lot of the sports. And the cricket guy, I've watched him play cricket down there for the last seven years because we're on soccer turf fields sometimes playing as well. So it they do, they play cricket in the market. So uh hats off to them. But we do need more parks around Pasco for the kids.
Thank you very much.
Hello. Hi, my name is Kenneth Hothtower. Um [address removed]. I lived here for my whole life pretty much. I've actually worked here for over 25 years. I've done tons of people's houses and I tell you this is the worst time I've ever been around. Um most of the people I talk to now can barely afford to be here. Um most of them are leaving. I I can tell you that. Most of the properties I work on, usually they're leaving or they're fixing their house to turn
around and sell it. Um because they can't afford it no more. Uh the insurance is too high. Um I guess your property taxes are being raised where Um it's ridiculous. Even my property tax, uh I think it's a joke. Um I thought, you know, when we buy a house, you know, after we pay it off, I I thought it was ours. But I guess we're have to pay taxes on it. I don't know where that came from. I thought this was a free place, but I guess it's not. I'm realizing that more and more every year, I can tell you that. Um I didn't have too much
to say. I just I I have a lot to say, but you know, I never been up here before. Um this is my first time, but I tell you it's uh really odd that you know a lot of people have to go through all this. Half the people I know are older people that can't speak for themselves, so I'm kinda up here for their behalf. um because they can't get here. Um I wish that, you know, uh you guys can consider um thinking about that before you, you know, raise your property tax because, you know, after after this, well I
can tell you I'm probably gonna move because I ain't gonna be here no more because I tell you what, the property is the taxes is too high. And my insurance, I don't even have insurance. Uh I don't because it's too high. Um I might as well save that money, wait till my house burns down and I can rebuild it myself instead of having to do it. And that's how I feel about it. Um but, you know, uh whatever you guys think, I hope you guys come up with a good agreement to figure out what to do because I I don't even think this tax Is justified.
But, you know, um I'm here for the people that can't talk, so Um I hope that helps you guys out and makes you gives you a better decision on your uh judgment. Thank you. Thank you. No clapping.
But good job for your first time.
Hi, Lisa Moretti, [address removed]. As I was watching the budget hearings previously, the workshops and things that we've been going through, it seems like, I mean, this is a fairly sizable budget for a county. We're a large county, but this is still a lot of money. And you've heard today from a lot of residents who are telling you that the way that we are spending our money is not meeting their needs. Yeah. Uh I spent the weekend in Needy Muk pulling out stuff out of a creek that no one
could seem to figure out. How come we can't get the creek to flow? and uh it's apparently no one's responsibility. So the water's not flowing, which means it's backing up and it's flooding residents' homes. I've been out to other people who are watching as we allow developers to lift their properties. That water has to go somewhere. They're the low spot. their back fence for their cattle is so far underwater you can't see the fence posts. So Somehow and they look at me and they say, I'm paying
taxes, I'm paying for stormwater, I'm paying for all these things, and yet my life and our quality of life doesn't work. I'm also talking with a lot of residents who are telling me, I can't stay here anymore. I just can't. I can't afford it. I can't get here. So on top of that, we've also seen a lot of our um housing prices for affordable housing skyrocket. Uh our median house price is $369,000. People can't afford that as affordable housing, so they can't
live in our county. They work in our county, but they can't afford to live here, which means they aren't part of our community. And that's wrong. So as you I know you're not going to be able to do much today because you've already been through so much of the process, but As you move forward, I hope you'll stop and think about where the money is being spent and what you're hearing from people as to what they really need. What they really want. because we aren't meeting that need. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments.
Oh yeah, that.
Nancy Hazelwood, [address removed]. It's nice to see y'all in a different venue. Um I've got just a couple of short and sweet things to say, which is I'd like to see the development community pick up parks and recreation and do a lot more for this county. Also, I was wondering if anybody had given any thought to opening up some of the schools to extra over after school activities for the people here.
Thank y'all.
Okay,
thank you for your comments. Is everybody?
Uh we have two on WebEx. Do you want to move to WebEx? Okay. Yep. Um so the first one on WebEx is Gina Bellelio. Ms. Bellelio, are you there? See
your name up here.
Ms. Bellelio, if you are speaking, you are on mute.
Okay. Now can you hear me? I can. Well name and address for the record and then you have your three minutes.
Okay, this is for Mr. and Mrs. Bayelo. The address and the address is [address removed]? Okay, thank you. Um and this is a uh the townhouse. It's a small townhouse, very small, only thirteen hundred square feet. And when I purchased it they told me the price was going to be forty four hundred dollars for the taxes. Now I'm looking at fifty one hundred, which is a big gigantic difference, and I'm really not happy with that because I hardly use the place. I'm only there maybe three
times three times a year, which is three weeks in a year. I don't use the schools, I don't use the jails, I don't use the libraries, I don't use anything over there. So why should I have to pay all this money if I'm I hardly even use the place?
is my point. You know.
You have to finish your co uh comments, please.
Uh is there anything else I should say or any questions that you have?
No, we won't
we won't
talk back and forth as your comments, your time to speak. Mike on okay.
Right, I mean it's just I think it's too much to pay for hot for something that I hardly use and um I don't think it's fair. You know, especially now I'm out you know, I'm out of work because I broke my foot. I'm out of work for a while. I don't know. I just hope I can go back.
Uh You know? I don't know what else to say. I mean I like the place but I just think it's too much money and too much of a big jump. of a tax increase all you know, it's too much all at once. I could see a small increase, but this is way too much.
I mean I don't know what else to say. That's my main point. I don't use the parks, I don't use the jail, I don't use the the the libraries, I don't use the schools. I mean I hardly use the place. So I don't see why I should have to pay all this money and I'm I'm hardly there. You know, I'm only there a few weeks. You know? A few weeks in a year. And I just think it's just too much. Too much of an increase, way too much.
So I don't know what else to say to you. If you have any questions, please ask me.
Well, thank you for your comments.
Okay. Is that it?
That's it. Yes ma'am.
Okay. So I just wait to hear from you through the mail or something?
We still have time on the clock.
Okay. I should have had my husband join me for this. Let me see if he he'll he wants the same thing. Can you hold on a minute?
Larry's gonna be up if you
wanna say anything? About the Florida House? We complain about this big increase, big old increase.
Yeah.
Uh she I think she's been disconnected. So the next person. All
right.
state.
I I don't know. Um so the next person signed up is Vincent Ghariano on WebEx. Mr. Ghariano.
Are you there, sir?
If you are speaking, you're on mute.
and
you there?
I heard him.
I heard him, but uh he's gone.
If you are there, um make sure you're unmute uh unmuted. And then your name and address for the record.
Well,
Hey, how are you doing?
Okay. Give us your name and address for the clerk.
Yes.
My address is [address removed]. So I'll keep this quick. I was here last year And you did come down a little bit in the millage. Um It took five hours. I think you all remember that. Uh I'm a retired Policeman. I don't get coal increases. And given the fact that my homeowners is doubling Next year. And uh Maybe
at least we could come together to uh lower the millage just a little bit And uh make this uh So difficult. This year. Um That's
all I have to say. Thank you. All right. Thank you for your comments, sir. You're welcome. Okay.
That's everyone on WebEx.
I see a gentleman that walked up. Were you in the room when I asked everybody that was going to speak in the room come forward?
Yeah, sir.
And you didn't?
No sir. I was debating whether or not I was gonna speak. But I think
it's worth it. I'm gonna give you time to speak because you deserve we We need to hear what you're gonna say. Okay?
Thank you. Name and address for the record. Yes, sir. I'm John Michael Moran, the president of the Pasco County Professional Firefighters. My address is exempt. Over the last decade, I've committed myself on behalf of the members to developing relationships with county leadership forged in trust and transparency. Administrator Karbala, Assistant County Administrator JJ Murphy remain engaged with us and subsequently have taught me how to better balance the needs of my members, the public safety branch, and the rest
of the county departments under your purview. It is not lost on any of us that the taxpayer provides our livelihoods, and we have an obligation to be good stewards of their money. I am confident that under the leadership of J.J. Murphy and his staff, the fire rescue budget is operating as lean and as efficiently as possible. Notwithstanding the unprecedented growth we are enduring and the unrelenting need to provide emergency services to an exploding population, we will continue to work together to exploit alternative funding sources.
whenever possible, to alleviate the burden on the citizens. Last year, we secured the AFG grant for retrofitting our fire stations with direct source diesel exhaust capture and have continued those efforts this year. The department received a firehouse subs grant. to purchase new Swiftwater Rescue Boats, and additional grant funding from the opioid task force that will expand our mobile integrated health program by providing medical care and resource tools to our most vulnerable patients. Along with the International
Association of Firefighters, we will continue to advocate for the Safer Grant request for 24 new firefighters. and will continue to lobby for state level appropriation requests that prioritize public safety. We have experienced success by working together and look forward to continuing to build our relationship. We acknowledge and respect the difficult position you are in as elected officials, especially during these trying times, and we will do all that we can to help. Thank you as always for your continued support of our proud Union firefighters. Thank
you for your
comments. Yes, sir. Okay. That's all over
that is everyone.
Everyone sign up? All right. We'll move forward. Um
Is there any discussion by the board?
Mr. Chairman It might be appropriate just for the for the public to perhaps see the presentation that uh we put forward if if the board would like. That would be good. Yeah, sir.
Amy Farrell, Budget Director with Pasco County's Office of Management and Budget, and I'm gonna um Show a brief presentation about our final millage rates and budget for fiscal year twenty-five as a result of the earlier conversation that the board had today.
All right, I'm on. All right. So our agenda here, it's it it'll be pretty light. So we're gonna touch base on what happened at our first public hearing, then we'll do a quick recap on what happened during the earlier session today, and we'll go over some fiscal year 25 budget highlights and recap of the long process that got us to here. Um Show you the tentative millage rates and then how those morphed through our earlier discussion today through the county administrators' recommendations
and then the board's direction and then proceed with the rest of the hearing.
All right, so our first public hearing was two weeks ago on September 3rd. At that time, the board did adopt zero mills for the parks capital maintenance MSTU, and the board directed staff to come back with some scenarios that included establishing a roads rehabilitation services MSTU while also providing a reduction from the general fund revenue. And so earlier today, the board did vote to direct staff to come back this evening with a general fund millage rate of 7.4292, which is
down from the 7.5700 mills that the board adopted last year. The board also directed us to realign $6 million from the Hudson Library project to the Paving Program. And so those changes will be reflected in the slides that we now will see.
Talk about the road data and the screen.
Oh, and the roads rehabilit rehabilitation, thank you, rehabilitation services, MSTU Millage Rate. Um the board gave us direction to set that at 0.4052 for tonight's hearing, which is down from the 0.5184 mils it was from July and the first public hearing. And I do have a slide later on that will show you what that translates into in terms of reduction. Yeah. Thank you, Mike. All right. So our 25 budget highlights.
So
uh I'm sorry, can you go back one slide?
Yes, ma'am.
We also took six million dollars from a capital project. And moved it over.
Yep.
That's the library.
To help with the paving. Yep. Just wanna make sure we say that.
Yes, thank you. All right. So our twenty five budget Um A big piece of it is continuing to provide essential premier services that the community has come to expect from us. We're also prioritizing keeping the public safe with the sheriff's operating budget. Jail expansion personnel so that way when the we're that's the slow build up so we can staff it once the full construction is completed. And we're continuing
to grow our fire response capability. We're maintaining a competitive compensation for our team members to make sure that we can retain strong talent and hire strong talent. We're also streamlining our development and expanding our infrastructure. We're investing in our road infrastructure in the right way by getting rid of the old PVAS program and moving to this MSTU. And we're also being good stewards of our existing infrastructure, making sure that we're providing those timely reinvestments. Included
in that is facilities, and also that bullet right above, right? So making timely reinvestments in our road infrastructure to make sure that our people are safe when they're driving and our first responders are safe when they need to get out there and respond and help our citizens. All right, so if I take our big budget and I break it down into some key components, right?
So the biggest piece is our operating. So think of our operating in terms of things like ensuring our team has the appropriate tools to successfully and efficiently complete the tasks throughout their day. They have PPE necessary when they're out in the field. Think of things like safety vests so they're clearly visible when they're on the side of the road. Think of steel-toed shoes that will keep their feet safe. Think of stretchers that'll Safely get people from accidents into ambulances while also keeping our first responders safe. And
we'll pivot to capital, another one of our big pie chunks. So in there we've got things like a waste-to-energy plan expansion. We've got wastewater treatment plan expansions, road capacity projects, sidewalk projects, stormwater projects. Just to name a few.
All right, so if I now look at the revenue side of our budget, that bottom gray slide is our ad valorem taxes. So that's our general tax. That's our fire MSTU or roads MSTU. If I were to move up, hmm, that's clockwise, to the the larger blue, our charges for service, that's things like our water services, our solid waste, our ambulance transport fees. Um The permits, fees, and special assessments, that's the green little sliver right there. So that's things like
birth building permits and plan review fees, things like that.
All right, so now if I pivot to the expense side of our budget, so that green pie slice, that's our physical environment, that's our water utility, solid waste, stormwater's in there, the public safety piece, that lighter blue to the bottom right-that includes the sheriff, our corrections department, our fire rescue team. If I keep moving to the other big piece under general government, that's things like IT infrastructure and maintenance, facilities management, our constitutional officers, save for the sheriff, and
some unfunded state mandates come out of that big pie.
All right, so let's hone in on our general fund. So that is by and large one of the biggest revenue sources in there is the general tax.
If you look at this big blue piece Plus that yellow sliver that says inflation. That part of the general fund budget is making sure that we're able to continue to provide those premier services that our community has come to expect from our team. The green sliver, four percent, those are things that we have labeled requirements. Those are staffing the jail expansion. That's the fourth shift for fire rescue. That is our compensation and study. That
is our wage increases for our corrections officers and our firefighters per their contract. The 5% grayish blue, that's our capital investments from the general fund, and then a small sliver of what we're calling enhancements. Think of those things as positions to meet growth. A department might need a few more staff members in order to provide the same level of service, or maybe there's a new program that they're looking to do.
All right, so now if I were to break that down into types of services provided. You will see that 52% of our general fund allocation is for public safety. So that's Sheriff Corrections, our fire team, and our administrative team that supports our public safety branch. Then we've got general government, which is what I had listed before, IT infrastructure and maintenance, facilities management, our other constitutional officers, unfunded state mandates, culture and recreation, that's our parks and libraries.
All right, so the first bit on this list are some of those unfunded state mandates that we had talked about. Anything that's bold and italicized would fall under that unfunded state mandate. The rest on that list are things that the board has decided to fund.
All right, so we do now have all of our constitutional officer proposed budgets. Um most of them saw some increase except the supervisor of elections. Next year's an off-cycle, so um as per usual, we do see a decrease on those off-cycle years where he um does it need as much for his operations.
All right, so the sheriff's budget includes 40 additional deputies. The sheriff is funding 20 new deputies with his 40% of his increased budget, and the board is matching another twenty deputies for that. We've also included some one-time expenses like SWAT vehicles and armored vans, upgraded forensic unit resources, a pole barn to keep his equipment safe, um, starting up his gap insurance funding. Yeah.
All right, in this budget is a f we've got a five year Capital improvement plan to the tune of $1.8 billion budget. But remember, tonight we're just adopting the fiscal year 25 amount, which is that first column. We like to present the five year look, but we do adopt on a um single year basis. Now, if I were to break down our transportation engineering capital into large buckets by type of work, you can see what we're putting towards capacity, think new roads, major
maintenance, multimodal, that's a lot of your pedestrian sidewalk, things like that, bike trails, safety and intersections, and signal updates.
All right, so This chart here are the tentative millage rates from the first public hearing. Now like I said based off this morning, we are coming to you with a final adopted budget recommendation that decreases two of the millage rates on this slide. The first operating general millage. That has come down. And the Roads Rehabilitation Services MSTU in the fourth line, that one has also come down.
All right, so earlier today the county administrator made a recommendation to decrease the general fund operating millage from 7.5700 MILL to 7.4292. The board voted for me and my team to come back with a budget to reflect those changes. The re um Mike, do you want to go over your recommended?
Sure. I I'd I'll just recap what I what I had mentioned is you know um We had um we had uh gone back per the board's direction after the uh first public hearing and and listening to uh what the public and the feedback that the board had given uh with with the idea that uh we needed to go ahead and make some reductions um in in in spending and so So we took a deeper look at our TIFF paving funds. I won't get into the detail of that, but those are funds that would have ordinarily been utilized for road paving.
We knew that with the Parks MSTU coming on board and the Board's prioritization of public safety, that we we felt that we could fund additional deputies for the sheriff to help satisfy his ask. He requested a total of six years. 60 deputies in his in his budget. I think between the board and the sheriff we were able to forward uh 40 deputies, which I think is is a fantastic uh nod to public safety. But we also took a an even deeper look and uh recognized that um while there was while there still is an
additional need in public work. Works for paving, repairs, landscaping, and those types of things, that it would be prudent to go ahead and curl back $3.5 million on a recurring basis back to the taxpayers. And so that was the first point. We also look to optimize the timing of our public safety staff members. And so we are expanding the jail. We will need to hire more corrections officers. We are opening new fire stations at a pretty rate. Rapid clip. However, the timing of construction and hiring, we
took a very detailed look at how we could make those timings work even better. It's already a factor, but we we looked at that and I felt comfortable on a recurring basis cutting back an additional $2 million back to the taxpayers on that front, with the understanding that with future valuation increases we will have to pay for those. At some point in time, but but I think for the time being we can we can do without. Reducing new investments. Again, uh there's a lot of important things that that I think that we need to do, uh, but there are some things
that can wait. So cut a little bit into the facilities reinvestment budget that we had set aside. Uh that fixes things like air conditioning, uh, that that does does a lot of things for our current public buildings. But you know, uh taking a little bit of a 20 percent reduction in that I I think I think we can we can do without and you know handle those things on an emergency basis if we need to, as well as those enhancement that's that that Amy was talking about. Um, you know what, we we don't have to hire all the new staff that we necessarily need. We can do a little bit more
uh with with what we currently have. All of that in conjunction at the same time not making any reductions to the the constitutional budgets. Again, the sheriff needs additional dollars to do his job. We are not recommending we we touch any of that. And as Amy astutely pointed out, 90 percent of our existing budget, 90 percent, is already going towards public, you know, those services such as public safety, our facilities management, our parks and our libraries, half of it going to public safety.
Safety in in and of itself. We estimate that even though that's about a seven and a quarter million dollar annual savings, that over five years with a compounding effect of growth, it actually equates to about a $43 million savings to taxpayers over the next five years by making that that simple reduction. So we heard what you said and uh I'm I'm happy that the team was able to help answer that call. Next slide.
The uh the remainder the remainder then of of our discussion focused on the the um road paving MSTU.
And that uh that paving MSTU millage is a significant reduction than what was originally proposed.
And Mike? Yes.
And for the gentleman asked about his paving a subsidy is already paying.
Yeah, I want to cover that actually, and I'll hit on that in just a second. So uh again, the board was presented with options. Again, we have a two billion dollar road problem in this county. Uh the current the current means of of paving that is the citizens must vote to tax themselves if they want their roads fixed, and that is put the board in the right-of-way. between disputes with with citizens and folks making the call as to when a road should be paved or not paved. Our public works department has an excellent program that they have developed for this road paving MSTU to basically
take Take that uh and and use a science-based approach and do road re rehabbing when road rehabbing is needed. So in other words, we may not need to go and completely mill and repave a road. We can simply use rejuvenation strategies which are pennies on the dollar compared to Complete road reconstruction and ан репень проєкс в Again, I think uh one of the gentlemen that came forward talked about a forty-three hundred dollar uh PVAS assessment for for for his share of the road. Uh you know, the cost to do a
rejuven that that could be the cost of an entire rejuvenation for an entire street versus a a uh a reconstruction project. To answer the question regarding PVAS, this board also directed us when we were adopting uh the new PVAS program to retire PVAS and to avoid sort of that trap of double taxation. And so as such, PVAS loans, actually we haven't even put them on the rolls this year. Uh those PVAS are not on there. And so folks will not be taxed again for the road. For those that paid the in advance, uh like
this gentleman said, um whatever amount um Would would be remaining on on a normal payment plan, that amount we we have an administrative process that we will develop to refund those dollars. So for example, I wrote down forty three hundred dollars for this particular gentleman. If that was a 10-year PVAS, and let's say he was one year into paying, the the rest of his neighbors were one year into paying. Uh technically he would be four hundred and thirty dollars would be technically spent because that's what his neighbors would have already paid. But
the difference between the forty three hundred and the four hundred and thirty dollars, that remainder, would be refundable because that's essentially what we're refunding is the those that opted to not do uh those that opted to do a payment plan. I hope that makes sense. But basically it's the unpaid the unpaid plan. Shaking
his head, yes.
Okay, good. Uh but we'll we'll have an administrative process for that that'll be be developed to go forward on that. So um I see the board may want to have some discussion. So
Chairman Mari Whiteman? Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Mr. Quality. They're reimbursement. The example you use in with the gentleman in the crowd. Is a c is the plan for the clerk to send them a check directly?
I don't I don't have the details. Yeah, I don't have the details on how we will do that. I mean I I You know, we're we we do recognize that we need six million dollars of of money up front to do those refunds. So I mean I I assume there would be a cash outlay.
Mr. Chairman Mariano. Yes, sir. There the The clerk would not be just figuring out who owes money or who's owed money and sent checks. There there will be an application process. Where somebody applies for a refund from the county and and then County Administrator sends that request to the to the clerk's office and A board check goes out out to them issuing them that refund.
Should this thing move forward that We don't have to wait for folks to apply to get their money back. that they you know, we do some sort of PR campaign that way folks can And get what's theirs uh back in their pocket.
Yeah, we'll we'll have that advertised on the website and how that administrative process will go forward. Thank you.
So ultimately where we um during the during the course of the discussion this afternoon The.4052 uh mills would generate a well, I'll just say approximately $19 million of money that would be utilized towards paving. Again, you know, every every amount is is substantial when it comes to doing that. I believe uh Mr. Mickel stated that that would pave approximately 65 miles of local roads and 10 miles of arterial collector roads. for next year, which is inclusive of
a I almost was remiss, the the reduction in one of the library capital projects, right? So the Hudson Library renovation was part of a voter approved general obligation bond. Prices went up We weren't able to afford to do that. So we've added that to the capital plan, but we've reduced the budget by six million and are looking to add that to paving. So essentially performing at a higher level of of paving, at least for next year, but but still trying to be sensitive to where where
that rate is set. So uh and then of course then the board directed uh us to reduce the general fund millage uh as recommended to seven point four two nine two according to the next slide.
Just a comment, Chair. And just also that including just to tell everybody um in that uh paving budget there is uh they will be doing sidewalks as well. So that's been a big concern with the schools and kids walking and so that will happen as well.
And fixing some drainage.
We ha we have a number correct road related drains. We have a number of we have a number of programs and again uh the need is is stronger typically. Like I said, we have a two billion dollar problem in the county. So well if we can tackle it twenty million dollars at a time, great. Um I I do think that Uh this will be one one one tax that you will see that uh the the results of that publicly. Yeah. So this this slide here kind of shows where we started and where we have ended up. So if you look in July,
which is when we set the the actual trim, and this is what is published on everyone's tax notices, we started with a general fund millage rate of 7.57, a parks MSTU and a Rhodes MSTU. You can see, you can do the quick math what the cost per hundred thousand dollars of taxable value is on that. During the first public hearing, the board adopted zero on the parks MSTU. So that $17 and twelve cents um was was was reduced uh immediately. Uh during
this morning's session when we came back and and what we're proposing to you from where we started is is an additional additional reduction in the general fund millage as well as what was proposed on the roads MSTU. So uh essentially the board the board has um looked at reducing uh forty two dollars and fifty two cents per hundred thousand dollars of taxable value as a result of of the public hearing process and and understanding uh the budget. At this point I'll Turn it back over to Amy. Okay.
All right, so then here is the table of the updated millage rates and like we said, um the two that changed was the general operating and the roads rehabilitation MSTU from what had you had been seeing throughout the budget up to this point.
All right. So any further board discussion?
Any other discussion? See a man?
I said. Um Mr. Karbala. A page from How Florida Counties Compare. And I've got one more and I'll I'll send it straight to you, Dan. D Rosella.
Yeah. So sending you one more. Um I just wanted the public to see this because I n
Um
I think you hear a little bit about the struggles that we have as county commissioners when we We know that people have financial challenges. But we also know we we have a responsibility to provide services. So we work very hard up here. the right b balance and it's not easy. Um it's not easy. So um I This is um from the how Florida Counties Compare. It's done by Florida Ta Tax
Watch. They take the same information from all the counties. It's not always able to be apples to apples. Um but let me just say Pasco County is the eleventh largest county in the state of Florida. and we are different from many other counties Because we don't have any big cities. So in in other cities, say Tampa Miami oh Miami Date's different. Um Orlando The city. may fund their parks and recs department and
their libraries. We don't have that here. I don't think we have any cities that really have any parks where kids go play football. or baseball or any of those things. It all falls on the county government. So we're a county government that has some responsibilities of a city. So as the eleventh largest county in the state. And I'm sorry it's so fuzzy. This says average total property tax millage rates. We are can someone pick
it up from
All right, go to the next slide.
Mm. Be patient. He is our assistant budget director.
Okay, this one is oh nope, you went too far 'cause I gotta read that header, sorry. per capita county government property tax levies. That means per per if you took the population and you divided it. We're the eleventh largest county. We are thirty thirty Where are we? Thirtieth thirtieth. Thirtieth.
Um and then the next one, please.
So I want you to look at the the cultural and parks and recs department on the right hand side. Again, 11th largest county in the state. We fund our parks department.
At forty seventh. There are we are the f we have the forty seventh Smallest budget. I mean there's forty six counties ahead of us with larger budgets. So We're doing the best we can with with what we have. We really are. And um It's not easy. It's not easy to craft this budget. We work on it for eight months. Work we're are we are conservative county. And We try and put out the
best bang for the buck that we can here in this county. So That was what I wanted to say, Commissioner.
Time yeah.
Yeah, no more construction. Um
Discussion? Um Is there a motion to adopt the Right. The millage rate for the general fund of seven point Four. Two nine two. Mills. So moved. Second. I got a motion and a second. Is this roll call? No. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. Hear none. Pass five zero.
Big. All right. Is there a motion to adopt the millage rate for the transportation trust fund? Uh Zero point zero zero zero zero mills.
Does wanna make that one?
I'll I'll move approval. That's a good one there. Chairman Mariano. Move approval. All right. I got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed five zero. Yes, ma'am.