Presentation overview of tentative budget
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The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 3, 2025
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Machine transcription of 28m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 50% of 111 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Okay, um Ms. Farrell, please provide a presentation overview of the tentative budget we will be deciding upon this evening.
Okay, so this evening we're going to cover the Florida State statutes and what brought us here, our purpose for being here. We'll get everyone re-grounded in the strategic goals and priorities that the board has asked us to address as part of this adopted budget. We'll go through the high-level budget assumptions and the overall tentative budget. We'll do a dive into the general fund and a high-level overview of capital and then we'll get to the rest of the hearing where we're looking to approve the tentative millage rates and the budget.
So any questions before I get started?
Anybody have
any questions?
No? Okay,
so hearing none. So back Back in January we started our budget cycle where we met with the board and we did a workshop looking at the five year strategic plan and what bits of that strategic plan we wanted to start focusing on in year one. And from then on, the county has worked very diligently behind the scenes and some publicly to put together a budget package for you that we're going to discuss in further detail tonight. And those included um Revenue projection meeting
in early spring we came back and we had some in-length discussions around municipal service taxing units and the parks one in particular and restructuring that. We held a board workshop. With the constitutional officers and the chief judge to get some early insight into their budget needs for the upcoming year. And then we had another workshop in June where we had preliminary taxable assessed values, and then we started to take a look at how the general fund. was shaking out. We came back
in July and we set the trim um for our tenative or our proposed millage rates and budget and now we are at the first public hearing to uh approved tentative millage rates and a budget.
All right, so for the purpose of the hearings, Florida statute requires that we have two public hearing to adopt millage rates and budget, allowing for public comment. Today is our first public hearing for the tentative millage rates and budget. And what we're presenting today are the same millage rates that the board adopted in July. And we must adopt the tentative millage rates and the budget by way of resolution.
Second, take a call here.
All right, so in back in January and throughout this budget cycle, the board has focused a lot of their attention on community resilience and sustainability. Reducing homelessness. Providing access and availability to cultural, educational, recreational and societal impacts for all. Meeting affordable and attainable housing needs, focusing on our stressed communities, and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.
And so our high level budget assumptions going into um Into the budget that we're talking about, we right now have are proposing no change to our operating millage. No change to the Fire MS to you, Millage. No change to the road rehabilitation millage. No change to the Parks MSTU Millage. No change in the stormwater assessment. Earlier today the water utility rates were adopted and so those will
get folded into the budget for the final public hearing, but so they are not in the numbers that you will see today, but we'll package those up for the final. And then we also discussed the Solid Way seven for seven plan.
All right, so our tentative budget as it stands today, net of interfund transfers, is broken out here by operating, capital, debt service, and reserves. And so for situational awareness, this is the overall county budget. So funds for all of our operations from road maintenance to capital projects to our water utility, our solid waste utility, fire rescue, the sheriff, all of the constitutional officers
are all encompassed in these numbers you see right here. Now some of us are more visual.
So we wanted to make sure that we also included this in a pictorial and a pie chart so you can see the relationship of the different pieces to each other and you will see that operating or maintaining our daily operations is the biggest piece of the pie of the budget that's getting um considered tonight. And now that reserve piece of the pie Um, tends to be a little bit confusing when you look at it at this high, this high-level number. So, what we wanted to do was break it out by type
of reserve. And so what this pie chart shows you is we've got The general fund reserves is that small blue piece coming here on the bottom right. Our support services is that smaller, darker green right above that. Special revenue, those are everything from the Fire MSTU to um what other funds are in there that might sound cool? Uh Gas tax, right? So um Operating
our road maintenance and all of that is in there. All of our MSTU, so road rehabilitation MSTU is in there. And then you'll notice there's a small sliver for capital projects. And you might say, Amy, why would we have a small sliver for capital projects? And I would say, great question. Because really our intent is to fully spend and execute all of those capital dollars and put them to work. However, some of our capital revenue streams we have to build up over time. And then you'll see that where we've got some higher budgets in FY26
because we've let some of those capital dollars roll over, and now we can execute. So technically we'd like that to be zero, but It's not always that feasible. And then over here in the enterprise, so those reserves get to be a little bit interesting because in there are some bond covenants that give us some required reserve levels. And so those are for the solid waste utility, the water utility. And so there's um Kinda we'll call it special rules that govern what we need to hold in reserves there.
Any questions before we move on?
Sure. Yes. So in the reserve bucket
All the special revenue, capital projects, enterprise, and internal services, even though it's in a reserve, is basically Is every single one of these dollars encumbered? Obviously the general funds, you know, as general it can be We can touch that if we need to but in these other buckets they're pretty much locked in because they're obligated to one thing or another.
Restricted. Yeah, the majority of what you're seeing here are restricted funds.
Okay.
Um what percentage of total, you know, are we at the sixteen percent? What what percent are we at? So You gonna show that somewhere here?
So that depends on what particular fund you're looking at. But now if I go back to this slide and I look at what is the total reserve for all of this, what is that percent for our total budget? We're hovering around twenty percent in reserves.
Amy Bayonet she's referring more to the general fund.
But the right, but our general fund is sitting at twelve point seven percent. And now so recommend invest practice is sixteen point seven percent, which equals sixty days of operating. And so our general fund reserve oop Forward is where I wanted to go. That sixty-five point nine and I will touch on this in um further detail as well, but that puts us at roughly forty-seven days of operating, so thirteen shy of that sixty-day target. Which is helpful when things like storms and other emergencies roll through.
No
sure.
In in in one of these would would the uh waste energy plant uh reserves for that be be put in there?
Yep, that's gonna be in the enterprise bucket, that one seventy-eight point two.
Okay. That's money we collected for seven years. Okay.
Yep. So in yep, so that's a great point, Commissioner Mariano, because in that enterprise is I hate that. Right, me too. Is um so we have bond covenant type reserve requirements, but we also looked in order to balance what those fees are to the citizens, we look at a balance of financing through debt service and some pay as you go. So you will see the enterprise reserves kind of ebb and flow as we're trying to build up to to cash fund some of the
those projects like the waste to energy plan expansion, that was a multifaceted approach to financing with some cash pay as you go, as well as some bond deals and financing. And so you'll see kind of a blend of that in those funds.
Um Commissioner Weightman. Thank you, Chair. So in this sixty five point nine, that's not including the seven and a half that FEMA owes the county in reimbursement.
It does not.
So what would our
fund, as you know, it had fun during budget time. So with the seven and a half million that we are were owed in FEMA reimbursement, that would give us move from forty-seven days to fifty-three days. in the coffers. But what we also learned is I was like, well can we borrow against because you never know when we're going to get your female reimbursement. So a question was can we leverage that money in and essentially
borrow against it versus having you look at increased taxes and fees or whatever Eric said no we can't, but I'm not necessarily satisfied with that that answer. Um so create creative budgeting here, but it was that was an interesting novelty that came out of this exercise.
So um I told you yesterday I was on a statewide call with Florida Association of Counties, listening to the ideas coming out of different counties and Bay County, which is Pensa you know, uh uh Panama City Beach and up in there. They're trying to see if they can sweep they they want to propose Sweeping dock stamps to pay for the debt that they have incurred from the hurricane. That Um Because they have not been
paid back In ten years from I think it's Hurricane Michael. Michael. Ten years. And th they uh they have all this debt from that hurricane, they're paying interest on it. So Who knows when the heck we're gonna get that money?
Well
that's why it's vitally important that uh you know and I I I would probably put to task and Eric talk more about it, but you know, our our ability to get reimbursed where paperwork is very tight, we keep very close tabs on you know how we do our reimbursements and ensure that we we check all the boxes to to ensure a more swift reimbursement. We also participate in uh in a program that allows us to collect some of our monies early on. F rock I think is is what it's called and so we're able to get 50% up from that helps but who knows
when we're
gonna get the other fifty.
Correct.
Look how long it took us to get the money from um Some of those past hurricanes took a decade. So something we need to talk to our legislators about. State hands holds on to uh a lot it for a long time because they get it. Now they sit on it. But That that needs to get down to the counties much quicker.
W would it When you're talking about FIC, would it be say so Pasco's owed seven and a half million, that would put us at fifty three days, seven days shy of our sixty day best management practice.
You has there been conversation if the s if the state would say give the county seven and a half million or a portion of that and then hold the debt until the Fed passes it down to give counties a break on their budget cycles. Because when you look at Obviously this we can't face here but just For legislate if if the state were to do that I think it would alleviate a lot of the burden, especially with the property tax talk because i if if if boards,
commissions and city councils knew they had that flexibility, they could potentially you know manage their millage rates differently, especially you know the Bay Counties of the of the world. Uh has that been discussed at FAC or any level?
No, Commissioner Oakley not that I'm aware of, maybe at the staff level. I can I can tell you at the staff level we we have a struggle even with the state um with a particular issue in solid waste over you know reimbursements of State assets that have come to help us, where the state wants us to take on the reimbursement liability, which we've refused. So I think the state's just as much in the hole as local governments would be. I mean, we have not had that conversation. I'm happy to ask Mr. Guthrie or those that are in a position, but
I would suspect that the state's in the same hole that we are in terms of reimbursements from the feds as well, since we're arguing. Theoretically
you'd think it'd be easier accounting than the Fed just write one check to the state of Florida versus sixty seven checks to sixty seven counties and however many.
But they hold on to it.
Reimbursement of uh in documentation is of such vital importance to the federal government. That's why we harp on with our departments and we have pretty good processes in place where our reimbursement packages are pretty tight. Um so I mean I feel good about what we submit. I can't speak for Bay County or other places, but we're just following the rules. Uh your points are well made, uh Commissioner, and and there are probably conversations that we should broadly have um when it when it comes to you know you know how to help county.
Um I need to clarify something. Bay County did not want to do the doc stamps, that was someone else. What Bay County wanted to do was um take their building department fees because they did not waive them like we did. Um and take that rev revenue bump that they had after the hurricane, take that money and pay down their hurricane debt. That's what they're trying to get the state to do. I just I don't wanna misrepresent.
Or any further reserve conversation for
All right. So now we wanted to take the revenue coming into this total budget and try to break it out in a way that might make some sense to somebody who doesn't work in my office. Um that That top purple piece of the pie is what is coming in for property taxes. So then your next question is, okay Amy, well what makes up those property taxes? So if you look over to the first table, you'll see the general fund or the general revenue tax that comes in makes up about $426
million of that. Our fire MSTU is about just a little shy of 119 million of that. The road MSTU is just shy of 22 million. And then voter approved loans, so these are those general obligation bonds that our voters voted on to renovate our libraries. to handle some of our deferred parks maintenance, to expand the jail. And to rehab and build some new fire stations. And so the revenue
coming in for those is $12.6 million. So fun fact on those 'cause I love fun fact Wednesdays. Um the millage rates that we set for those general obligation bonds are designed to only collect what we need to pay for debt service. So when the county is in a growth situation which we are right now, um the same millage rate applied to more households and more properties. will generate more money. So we're actually seeing a reduction in the
general obligation millage rates as a result of the growth in the county. So you can get the same Money coming in, charging everyone a little bit less because it's spread out over more households and properties. All right, so that's we'll move on. I'm sure I'll have more fun fact Wednesday for you. Um so the next piece of the pie, if we just go that's clockwise, um, is our beginning balance or our reserves. So think of that as last year's leftover over reserves coming into the next
year's our starting off point on the revenue side of things, we call it. Beginning balance because we like to keep you on your toes. And then if we slide down to the next piece of the pie, so these are charges for service, fees, and assessment. So for these, think of um There's a transactional thing that I get when I pay something. I pay this thing, I get a service, I pay this thing, I get a product, so think a permit, things like that, right? It's very transactional based. Now
if we keep going across to the last wedge where it says other sources, think of these as more kind of pooled resources that get divvied out into programs. Yeah. So in there we've got penny for Pasco as a good example, our fuel taxes, where you pay in, and then there's rules that divvy out how those things are allowed to get expensed. So I hope that makes sense. Are there any questions on the total revenues coming in?
All right. Alright, so now we're gonna take a dive into the general fund. So our final taxable assessed values yielded 11.2% growth over the previous year. And so here we'll show you how that new money kind of gets divvied up for lack of better words. So the sheriff's allocation at 17.43. It is important to note that this is $2 million less. than what we had agreed upon because the sheriff gave us back a little over two million
dollars. That way we could reallocate those resources over to fund some maintenance for our parks team. So we've been able to um bolster that maintenance budget up by three million in part because the sheriff gave us back that two million.
To sheriff's I think Chase is here. Is he here? Chase Daniels. Yeah. I can't ex express my appreciation to you guys enough, especially when we're trying to balance the park for Sheriff to come in and and work with us on his budget and then cut, you know, reallocate two million for the parks department. That's a big deal. And um I think we all know that. So thank you.
Yeah, we all agree. We're very agree.
All right, and then um because the payments, the community community redevelopment areas and the tax increment finance areas are based off of um That same taxable assessed value from the base year till now, there's a little bit of extra money that's getting funneled over to each of those components. When we dropped down to the FIRE Municipal Service Taxing Unit, they realized 11.7% growth over the prior year, which is roughly $12.5 million more in revenue. And
then when you drop down to the road rehabilitation MSTU, that yielded 11.2% growth, which is roughly $2.2 million that the team's been able to put back into that road program.
All right, but now it's important to note that our general fund is a big compilation of many, many things in property tax revenue. While it's the biggest piece of the pie, it is just one piece of the pie. So now when we look at our overall general fund and how that's sitting. Um These numbers are a little bit different than when we met back in July. The state did their true up on some of those major revenues that come through to us and we realized more money than we had been anticipating and so we In
that we've been able to bump up our reserve, which on here is called ending fund balance, because I love nothing more than to keep everyone on their toes. So last time we looked at that, that was right around hovering the $48 million mark, which was 34 days in reserve. Now that we're sitting at just shy of $66 million, that does bump us up to the 47 days that we talked about a little bit earlier.
That's how we got to the forty seven days?
Yes. And it made our um structural imbalance when you go to the next line where revenue coming in and expenses coming out on an annual basis, that kind of closed the gap and it put us um a little bit better from a structural standpoint too. So it was this is why the team keeps refining those estimates as we go through this process.
Alright, so we looked at the revenue side of the house, so now let's look at how those general fund expenses break out. So the biggest piece of the pie is dedicated to public safety. So on here um we've broken out what makes up public safety. So we have the sheriff's allocation, corrections, fire rescue, and other and again it is imp important to note that um When you go to the outward facing, the last time I showed you this parks was sitting
at around twenty million dollars and now because um of the share's contribution they've been able we've been able to bump that up to twenty-three million. And so really just the kind of the big muscle movement since the last time that we looked at this presentation together.
Now in the general fund, we also have a grouping of uh what we're calling state mandates. So anything that is bold and italicized, we are state mandated to pay. And then anything on this chart that is not bold or italicized is at the board's discretion. Um these numbers have not changed since the last time we saw them because we did have all of those state numbers like Medicaid already. Um They were already sent to us and incorporated.
Amy, I think it I think it's fair to put on the record that the the fourteen point two million and the unfunded mandates, that's a very conservative I mean it's a pretty conservative number, wouldn't you agree as we
Yes. The more that we've explored where we have um either unfunded or under funded state mandates, they do spread uh by and large beyond the general funds and it is a much larger I don't have that number off the top of my head, but it is vastly larger than what you're seeing.
Yeah so as we As we've gone through this this project and understanding the unfunded or unfunded state mandates in our budget, as we compile the list and refine it, especially as session and as the state moves forward with you know the potential property tax discussion and referendum, we have something tan tangible that we can show our state leaders and say, hey, here's the impact of your decision. We would love to take this $14.2 million and reallocate it or
give a nice tax break to our taxpayers. But as you as to help them go through their thought process on what they on what they may decide to do with local governments, I think it's a really important piece because it's all scalable of the 67 counties, it's probably virtually a percentage of every every budget. Um and so I I'm just really grateful that y'all y'all have taken this exercise seriously and not found it too too annoying or burdensome. But uh it's it's
been pretty pretty eye-opening. Um so thank you for your work on on this.
You're welcome. It's been an an enlightening and educational side quest.
Uh Commissioner Mariano.
Uh Metamat, I really like that idea. Commissioner Weightman has got it. That would be something they can look at. It's a start. With the official stuff to help us and it contingent upon that we do cut our budget down by X number of dollars. Return up to the tax break. Great idea.
All right, so um our constitutional officer budget requests, so again these are by and large the same and I know I'm foot stomping it, but really the only change from the last time you saw this is the two million dollar reduction from the sheriff.
And so the last time we saw this we had added the record clerk for the clerk and comptroller. We just wanted to keep that note up there that was associated with the anticipated increase work around the value adjustment board.
Yeah. A Amy, in uh back to slide fourteen with the burials.
Yes.
Didn't didn't we just what we approved recently the the fees for cremations? Yeah, we just was that not accurate and was that update reflected in
Uh that's
this what we just approved.
Yeah, you had a three year contract for roughly six hundred thousand dollars, so that more or less tracks those numbers.
Yeah,
okay.
Can you um please silence your phones? Thank you.
One thing maybe Amy just point out um for the public that the reason the supervisor of elections is a little higher is because it's an election year, correct?
Yes, correct. So the supervisor of elections budget will ebb and flow. Um whether it's a big election year or an off election year on the off cycles, he does reduce his budget substantially.
All right, so our capital improvement plan is uh $1.8 billion over the next five years. Um We show a five year plan, but the board really is only adopting that first year. So earlier we talked about um capital reserves and how sometimes we'll be building up those capital dollars until we have enough in the bank to be able to perform some work. And so this is a great chart that illustrates where that's happening. So if I take you to parks for example, um
there's the Conerton District Park is slated in 26 and so that's been money we've been building up over the years and so then you'll see how that drops down. in twenty seven because we've spent kind of that reserve we've been building up over the years.
Alright, and so here our transportation line um That is kind of a beefy program, so we like to break that out by categories. And then for point of reference, um the fiscal year 26 and some of the beyond, nope, we've listed the 26 capacity projects. So we're looking at Ridge Road, Sun Lake to um US 41. Two phases of Sun Like Boulevard and Starkey Boulevard slated to begin in twenty-six.
All right.
Oh I'm sorry Amy, wasn't the cubeless on there before and did you look did you look into that that it was already funded?
I did. I did. So that's in an out year? Not so these are the ones starting in twenty six J cubelus was slated for I think it was twenty-nine. Well I thought
we
were starting in the
I
thought we were starting really twenty-seven. This is why I checked my fact checker. Twenty-seven. Let the record show twenty-seven
Yeah. All right. All right, so now we're on our tentative millage rate slides. And so these are the ones that we will begin discussing individually. So um chair, if you'd like to go back to the bottom of the first page of the script now.
Okay. Um