Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Seminole County first budget hearing. Date is 09/10/2025. If you'd be kind enough to take a moment and silence your cell phones, if you have any other electronic device with you, please silence those as well. We will start with the invocation. This will be given by Mr. Koepore, the President and CEO of the Sharing Center and Associate Pastor of Acceleration Church, And mister David Johnson, our property appraiser, will lead us in the pledge. Please rise.

Thank you.

Before I offer tonight's invocation, I'd like to recognize and thank our Seminole County commissioners, county manager, and all county staff for their service and commitment to our community. Your leadership impact thousands of lives, and we're grateful. As we prepare our hearts for prayer, I'm reminded of the words of Proverbs eleven and fourteen, where there is no guidance that people fall, but in an abundance of counsel, there is safety. Tonight, may this scripture guide our heart as we seek wisdom, unity, and direction for the good of our county. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and for the privilege of gathering here in Seminole County Commission chambers. Lord, we are grateful for the commissioners who have answered the call to public service, for the staff who worked diligently behind the scenes, and for every resident whose voices and needs are represented in this room. We ask your blessing upon this commission as they deliberate and make decisions for the welfare of our county. Grant them wisdom, discernment, and unity of spirit. May their leadership reflect integrity, fairness, and compassion for all people.

We lift up our community, families, schools, businesses, and first responders. Protect and strengthen them as they contribute to the life and health of our county. As this meeting begins, let our presence let your presence guide the conversation and outcomes so that every action taken here tonight honors you first and serve the best interest of Seminole County. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. If

you'll please join me in a pledge,

Thank you all very much. I wanna recognize a couple elected officials that we have in the presence with us this evening. We have supervisor of elections, miss Amy Pinnock. Thank you for being here. Our property appraiser, mister David Johnson. Our fine sheriff, mister Dennis Lima. Thank you all for attending this evening. It's good to see you all. I also wanna thank the residents of Seminole County who have come out on this evening, some of you in the rain, to come out and share your thoughts with us. We sincerely appreciate it very much. If I see mister Malloy? He's right there. Oh, there you are. You weren't there yesterday. And our clerk, mister Grant Malloy.

Good to see you. Good to see you too. We're going to start tonight, in just a moment. I want to remind everyone, if you're here to speak on the issues here tonight, this is about the budget. We're going to ask you to find a speaker's form in the lobby, bring it down here to miss Dominique with her hand up, give it to her as soon as possible.

If they're not turned in by the time we get to public comment, which will be here in a little bit, we're not going to take any additional public comment. Please fill those out now so she can get those ready for us and hopped up and we'll get you up here to speak. This is the first public hearing. The purpose of tonight's hearing is to present the tentative millage rates and budget for fiscal year twenty five-twenty six and to allow for public comment. Before we begin, the public should be reminded that this board of county commissioners does not have control over the tax levies or budgets of the school board, the water management district, the property appraiser, tax collector, or any of the seven cities in Seminole County.

Questions regarding assessed property values should be addressed to our property appraiser, mister David Johnson. I will now turn it over to the county manager as this is his budget. Mister Gray?

Thank you, mister chairman and, commissioners and members of the public. Thank you for coming this evening. Tonight is the first of two public hearings required by the Florida statutes for the adoption of our fiscal year twenty twenty five twenty six budget. This these hearings are a critical step in ensuring transparency, public involvement, and accountability in how we fund services for our residents and business community. The purpose of the meeting is to present the tentative budget for all county funds and to review the proposed millage rates for the county wide district to fire MSTU and the roads MSTU as well as the rollback rates.

The rollback rate is the millage rate that when applied to next year's tax base, excluding the new construction, generates the same revenue as last year. This hearing was advertised through the notice of public of the proposed property taxes mailed to every property owner in August. So how did we get here? The tentative budget and millage rates before you tonight are the result of nearly a year of work. This year's budget process started earlier than usual.

In December 2024, departments were directed to submit budget requests under new guidelines that focused on essential services and discouraged discretionary increases. For the first time, these same guidelines were also shared with our constitutional offices to promote consistency and transparency across all budget participants. In March, 2025, county leadership held a budget update with the board to review the revenue trends, cost projections, and the structural challenges that we're facing. These discussions continued in March when the board of county commissioners held a retreat where staff outlined potential solutions and emphasized the need for coordinated action. Later in April, all department directors came together for a full day retreat focused on operational efficiencies.

That session produced more than 40 seminal moments. These initiatives designed to reduce cost, streamline processes, and improve service delivery. All of this groundwork prepared us for the budget work sessions in May and in June where commissioners reviewed every constitutional office, county department, and service area in detail. Throughout this process, our shared goal has been to balance fiscal responsibility with maintaining essential services while meeting the expectation of our growing community. So just a few key highlights that are in our tentative budget.

All county departments were directed to submit a 0% increase to their base operating budgets. Positions were reduced and internal services consolidated through attrition and restructuring. This budget maintains law enforcement services provided by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, supports our fire department operations and equipment, including EMS and dispatch, sustains our emergency management, disaster response, 911 communications, addressing, and our animal services, offsets inflationary increases in personnel, fuel, materials, and insurance. It stabilizes the general fund, ensuring healthy reserves to manage future economic uncertainty. This budget also highlights some investments in the future.

We're getting ready to launch our Scout microtransit service to improve the mobility and reduce the long term cost of public transportation, Design and early construction of an indoor complex to help with our youth athletics in the county as well as future economic development. Our continued redevelopment of our Rolling Hills Community Park and Deer Run, including trails, green space, and neighborhood amenities. Stormwater and drainage improvements in the Midway community to reduce flooding and to protect property. Planning and design for the Rosenwald Community Center project, transforming the former school site into a vibrant park and community hub in East Altamont. On the revenue side, to sustain the essential services to meet, state mandates, the budget does include a zero 0.5 mil increase to the general fund millage.

This adjustment was not made lightly, and I'd like to repeat that. This adjustment was not made lightly, but it is necessary to main critical services such as public safety, transportation, storm water management for flooding, and parks. Our fiscal strength and reserves, our general fund reserves is projected at 69,000,000 or 18% of the operating expenses and revenues. Our water, sewer, and solid waste enterprise funds remain fiscally sound with resources for ongoing operations and future capital improvements. This tentative budget represents a balanced plan.

It invests in the needs we face today while we are preparing for the challenges of tomorrow. It reflects a shared sacrifice and shared progress from our staff and from the community we serve. I want to commend our senior leadership team for their collaboration throughout this process as well as the constitutional offices. I also would like to thank all county staff for their dedication in finding efficiencies and improving services. Your commitment to our residents and our business community is what makes this work.

At this time, mister chairman, I'd like to turn the presentation over to our management and budget director, mister Tim Jeks. He will provide a detailed overview of the tentative millage rates and budget. And once Tim has completed his presentation, chairman will turn it back to you for public comment. Thank you. Thank you very

much, mister Gray. Mister Jeks?

Good evening, commissioners. I'm Timothy Jacks with the Office of Management and Budget. In accordance with Florida statute truth and millage requirements, tonight is the first of two public hearings to adopt the millage rates and budget. The f y twenty six tentative budget is balanced with revenues and expenditures totaling $1,200,000,000. This includes reduction adjustments from the proposed budget of $12,990,504. This details our adjustments.

On the

left, we show primary revenue adjustments, which include a $3,000,000 increase in ad valorem revenues based on the final taxable values from the property appraiser budgeted at 96%. There's a reduction of 3,300,000.0 in our public service tax and 1,400,000.0 in our local option fuel tax revenues to reflect a partial year of collections beginning on 01/01/2026 as opposed to the start of the fiscal year, 10/01/2025. There's an increase of 3,100,000.0 for the tourism improvement district, which was approved this summer. The revenue contribution from the court authority is updated from 150,000 to 250,000 based on the submitted budget. And finally, there's a reduction in county wide fund balances of $15,000,000.

Majority of this is related to a recent refunding of water and sewer bonds, which released a reserve requirement and allowed us to pay down bond principal. On the right hand, expenditure adjustments include the sheriff who reduced his budget request by $900,000. There's a reduction of 5,600,000 related to a partial year change in fixed route bus services with links, which starts next January. There's a related increase of 5,500,000.0 to fund a full year of micro transit services. Water and sewer debt service payments are being reduced by 2,100,000 due to the refunding mentioned earlier.

We have net reductions of 243,000 to personnel budgets primarily in the general fund related to the unfunded positions being eliminated in the budget. There's a countywide increase of 830,000 related to health insurance costs. And finally, we have a reduction of $11,300,000 in countywide reserves. I will now move on to the presentation of the tentative millage rates. The first column shown here is the current f y twenty five adopted rates.

The second column shows the rollback rate, which would generate the same amount of ad valorem tax revenues as the current year, excluding new construction. The next column shows the f y twenty six tentative millage rates, and the final column shows the percentage of the tentative millage rate over the rollback rate. As you can see, the f y '26 tentative rate for the countywide millage is 0.5 mills higher than the f y 25 adopted rate. This increase in millage will be used to maintain public safety services, offset rising cost of transportation, meet stand state mandated obligations, and remove the existing budget deficit. The fire and road district millage rates will remain unchanged from f y twenty five.

All rates match those approved by the board on July 22 and were included in the property appraiser's notice of proposed taxes. I will now read the rates into the record. The general countywide millage of 5.3751 mills is 16.42% above the rollback rate of 4.6168 mills. The fire rescue MSTU millage of 2.7649 mills is 5.43% above the rollback rate of 2.6226 mills. The unincorporated road MSTU millage of 0.1107 mills is 5.33% above the rollback rate of 0.1051 mills.

And the tentative aggregate millage rate for all BCC taxing districts is 7.3663 mills, which is 12.7% over the current aggregate rollback rate of 6.5363 mills. I will now present the tentative budget. The total countywide budget is $1,215,087,959 for all governmental funds, special revenue funds, enterprise funds, and internal service funds. This includes a reduction of 12,990,000.00 from the county manager's proposed budget published in May. The chart on the right shows a breakdown of the county's expenditure budget.

That concludes my presentations. Are there any questions from the board before we move to public comments?

Any questions of mister Jeks at this time? Seeing none, stand by, sir. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Alright. We will go to public comment at this time. I would ask to make sure each and every one of you that desire to speak or want a written comment, make sure you fill out a form, bring it right down here to the clerk, miss Dominique, so she has it. We will call three at a time. If you'll be kind enough to line up, we'll try to get you through here as quick as possible.

I would ask that you act with proper decorum. This is not a place that you yell out and scream from the audience. We want to respect everybody's time here and make this as efficient as possible for everyone. If there are some questions, we will ask staff to come back afterwards and, have dialogue with the commission and answer any questions we might be able to answer at that time. So, Ms.

Dominique, if you would call up the first three, we'll have three minutes of each participant. I would also ask, as a courtesy for everyone attending tonight, if you can try not to be repetitive after we've heard the same thing three times, we probably have it. We want you to have your speaking time, but, we know this is an important issue to each and every one of you, but try to be non repetitive if you can. We'd sincerely appreciate it. First three names, please.

Leslie Grubel, John Hervadi, and Larry Metter.

Ms. Grubel.

Good evening. I hope you all are doing well.

Feel free to pull that microphone down if it if you need to to get it close.

Suggesting? No, ma'am.

Not not not for a minute.

Okay. Well and, again, good evening. My name is Leslie Grubel, and I live in Longwood. Tonight, I'm here representing the League of Women Voters of Seminole County. The league is a proud, nonpartisan organization that strives to empower voters and defend democracy.

Fundamental to our principles is our belief that efficient and economical government requires not only competent personnel, but also adequate funding. While nobody likes to pay taxes, everybody likes the wonderful services we receive from Seminole County that make this a great place to live, work, and play. Our parks and libraries are busy. Our roads are well maintained. Our sheriff's department and our fire department respond when needed in a timely manner, and none of this happens without adequate funding.

The millage rate has not been raised in sixteen years, while inflation and the cost of living have risen. Along with that, state and federal dollars that have augmented the county budget in the past have been reduced. There is also continuous salary and bonus competition to keep our very nicely trained officers in this county. The continued unfunded mandates from Tallahassee cannot be removed to reduce the amount of money needed in the budget to pay for special local needs. The league supports the allocation of tax dollars to fund our libraries, purchase natural lands, run vibrant parks and recreation programs, provide public transportation, and many other services that we in this county treasure.

As a lead member of the Observer Corps, I have watched the Board of County Commissioners' budget meetings and witnessed their efforts and results to decrease their expenses and encourage their constituent constitutional officers' budgets to do the same, as is indicated by the 13 molar $13,000,000 decrease in the budget request. In order to reduce LYNX mass transportation over time costs, the BCC is implementing a new innovative micro transit system in our county, which will be door to door to replace expensive, mostly empty links bus routes. This tax increase increase will in general average $12 a month, funding a wide array of governmental services. This increase to homeowners is minimal when compared to the average monthly cost of a cable TV or cell phone, which are purely voluntary services. The League of Women Voters of Seminole County proudly supports passage of the proposed budget to keep our county the outstanding community that it is.

Thank you.

Thank you. Pretty good timing. Mr. Midor, is that correct? Close enough. Yeah.

Can I say

that? That's great. So thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. My name is Larry Metter, Seminole County resident, business owner. I employ a little over 30. And like many of those here, we've had water cooler talk about property taxes and such. I like to say that I probably will agree with most people here, and I'm gonna assume everyone here on the asset, no one really wants to pay more property taxes. Right? You didn't start off trying to pay more property taxes. But what I do like, and borrowing from another person just the other day, I like that when you call 911, someone picks up the phone.

I like that. I like that we have beautiful parks and recreation. I like that we have an incredible school system. My daughters went to school here in Simpler County. Our commitment to quality roads, water, sewer, infrastructure, they all allowed me to feel good about where I live and and I sleep well at night. I've been a resident here for thirty years, and, God willing, I'll be here for another thirty. So, you know, I voted in every election and trust that the commission, has done their due diligence with information and understanding and trust that they're serving in our best interest. And, I'm in favor of the adoption of the millage and the budget as proposed.

Thank you. Thank you. If I don't spell this one right, is it Gravatti or Gravatti?

Harvatti.

Harvatti. My apologies. Calling it once, calling it twice. Harvatti? Okay. Call the next three and set that one aside.

Brenda Urias, Richard Glover, and Bob Chabot.

What was the last one?

Bob Chabot.

Chabot. Okay.

Good afternoon. You could state your name and address for the record, please.

Yes. Brenda Urias. 811 South Elm Avenue, Sanford, Florida 32771.

Welcome.

Obviously, name is Brenda Yariz. I stand before you today, commissioners, as a homeowner here in the Seminole County, but also as a local business owner and an avid cyclist here who use the trails and parks frequently, almost daily. I also serve as the chair of Seminole County's Tourism Development Council. It's been ten years, maybe sixteen years someone mentioned, that our county has increased its millage rate. And in that time, costs have risen in our community, and their needs have grown.

Investing in our parks, trails, and recreational opportunity is not just about maintaining what we have, but it's about ensuring continued health, safety, and vibrancy in our community. As a bike shop owner here in Seminole County, I see firsthand how these resources attract visitors, support our small businesses, and create a song stronger sense of place for our residents. As a homeowner, I know that these investments protect and enhance our property value. And as a cyclist, I know that making Seminole County that these trails make Seminole County one of the best places to live, work, and play. I do support the increase for these reasons.

I think it's a necessary step to secure the future of the amenities that Seminole County has that makes Seminole County Florida's natural choice. So a place where both residents and, visitors can thrive. Thank you so much, commissioners.

Thank you. Next, please.

Commissioners, I'm Richard Glover. I'm the CEO of the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Sanford. And I'd like to speak in support of the proposed adjustment to the millage rate and the proposed Seminole County fiscal budget. As someone who's running a business here, I understand all too well the cost to operate continue to rise quickly, and sometimes unpopular steps have to be taken in order to continue to provide needed services the public expects and take care of your business. In this case, the millage adjustment if the millage adjustment does not happen, the county would not be able to pay for all the services its residents expect.

In that case, the county would have to look for alternative sources of revenue to support some of those services. One option they would likely utilize is repurposing some or all of the tourism development tax funds, which are derived from the local hotel taxes and are currently used to support tourism in our county. The zoo and other important organizations like Historic Girlsboro and Stanford Main Street receive funds annually that help us in our efforts to draw tourists to spend money in Seminole County and provide those tourists and our community with top notch experiences. Zoo currently serves more than 400,000 guests a year, partly thanks to that funding. The zoo is a private nonprofit with a fifty year old infrastructure and more than 300 animals in our care.

So it's an extremely expensive buzz business to operate. Losing TDT funding from Seminole County would negatively impact our ability to market as effectively and continue to make infrastructure improvements that enhance our guests' experiences. The cost of the millage increase equates to $12 a month for someone with a house with a value of 300,000. While none of us want increased taxes, that is a very reasonable number given the important services it would support while also protecting tourism of our county, which in turn brings millions of dollars into our county every year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, sir. My name is

Bob Chubeau, and I live in Lake Mary in Seminole County. I'm also the chief operating officer at the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens. I'm here to speak in favor of the millage increase on property taxes. I'm concerned as a both a resident and as a somebody who works in the county and is helping to run a zoo in this county, not just about the reduction of services, but about the impact that this could have on the zoo. We've benefited in recent years by receiving some of the TDT funds that have come to the zoo.

This is one of the largest and most beloved cultural attractions in Seminole County, and we we've been able to use these funds to help fund educational program for children of all ages, help helped us to market and promote the zoo, and to help fund accessibility initiatives to help make the zoo more accessible to all. We've been able to do make improvements to pathways and walkways, degraded boardwalks, eliminate trip tripping hazards. We're also hoping to add automatic door openers, adult changing tables, cooling zones for guests, and improving and identifying areas for guests with sensory issues and disabilities. So very much would like to express my and our support for the village increase to help continue the great quality of life that we have in the county. So thank you.

Thank you. Next three please.

Judy Desrosiers, George Celery and Tom

Holler. Again. Judy

Desrosiers, George Celery and Tom Holler. Good

evening commissioners. Thank you for having us here tonight. My name is Judy Desrosiers, I live at 4207 Fox Hollow Circle in Casselberry. I am a Seminole County homeowner, as are both of my adult children in Deer Run, as a matter of fact. I also serve as the chair of the board for the trustees of the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, and as a member of the Seminole County Tourism Development Council.

I'm here tonight to speak in support of the proposed millage adjustment. As a resident, I know no one enjoys paying more in taxes, but this increase is modest when compared to what it protects, our public safety, our infrastructure, and the services that make Seminole County such a strong and vibrant place to live. As chair of the zoo's board, I would want to share how closely this decision ties to tourism and our community assets. The zoo receive receives money annually in tourism development tax funds. Those dollars support conservation programs, educations for thousands of children, and an attraction that draws more than 400,000 people each year to Seminole County.

If the millage does not pass, we've been told that the TDT dollars may need to be redirected sorry, to cover essential services and jobs. That would very likely mean the zoo and other community partners like Historic Goldsburg and Sanford Main Street could lose all tourism support. That would be a devastating blow not only to the zoo but to Seminole County's tourism economy as a whole. Approving this adjustment keeps essential services funded without undermining the cultural and economic drivers that make our county competitive. It ensures that public safety, infrastructure, and community attractions are not forced into the competition for the same limited pool of dollars.

On behalf of myself, my family, and the Central Florida Zoo's Board of Trustees, I want to thank you for your leadership, express our strong support for this proposal, and it is the responsible choice and is the right choice for Seminole County's future.

Next. Mister Silery, you have copies of that you're gonna leave with us?

Yes. I do have some.

I'm gonna give it for every commissioner. So

my name is George Salary, 5231 Shoreline Circle in Sanford. Starting out, you know, back in August, the commissioners raised the gas tax to the max 5¢ and the utility tax from four to 10% maximum rate starting January 1. Now we're looking at a millage increase, and I do not believe in the rollback rate. I believe in staying at the current rate, which should be a 10.3% increase. However, you also have to add in the 2.9% that everyone's valuations went up under save our homes, if you're under save our homes.

That 5.3751 is the highest tax rate since 1991. It is also the largest single half mil increase since prior to 1990. Can't find records going back further. Where Seminole County is the only county in Central Florida, Republican or Democrat, that is proposing a tax rate greater than the current tax rate. So we I've looked at this proposed millage. These numbers, you can check with the county manager. You can I used to do this? So new revenue, 44,000,000 in ad valorem at the new rate. Utility tax for only nine months, 9.9 4.1 for the Lynx money. That brings in $58,000,000.

Okay? From $2.51 last year to $2.96 this year. From '19 2019, 2020, when we were at a 167 to now, that is up a 128,900,000.0, 77%. Doge and Orange County is at 50% and they're being having an audit. Part of that is the current rate, even though you stay at that current rate and property appraiser can tell you all about that, you got reassessments, you got property valuation changes, you've got people not at the homestead, new development.

But inflation has been up for only 25% during the same time period, and Social Security increases have only gone up 21%. Staying at the current rate brings in $31,300,000. Next one up is reserves. Now this slide has changed a little bit because you guys just lowered it, but you still have almost $12,000,000 going into reserves. So you're raising taxes to put $12,000,000 in reserves.

Okay? And I I can tell you right now that's more if you look at those stats, that's more than city taxpayers. Only the city of Sanford has a budget that high for the whole general fund. There's a lot of rumors needed for bond ratings. You need it for, you know, certain amounts.

We needed it for the hurricanes. The hurricanes, we had a reserve budget of 8,900,000.0 and 9.5. And the last slide I wanted to show before my time is up is this is where the constitutionals are at. They're over if you go up a little higher on that, you'll see that they're not up that high. Sheriff Lima's budget at $15,000,000 is less than Orange County, less than Volusia County, less than Brevard County, and though two of those don't even have the jail included. So Thank you. We've always been very conservative.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Hi. My name is Tom Heller. 1731 Beacon Drive. So we're here tonight talking about millage rates. So let's do a comparison between our different counties and look at look at the other counties in our neighborhood. As far as land size, we are the smallest. 303 square miles compared to all the other ones. We're much smaller than the other counties. The second chart, population growth. We have grown less than the counties around us.

And yet, if you look at the third chart, we're the only ones proposing a millage rate increase. So what is a millage rate? Basically, it's a number when you multiply it by the value of the assessed value of the home, you get your tax bill. When the value of homes are going up, your tax bill's going up even with the millage rate exactly the same. So the last four years in Seminole County, property values have gone up around 40%, while inflation has only gone up around 20%.

So I looked at example of property value increase on my old home. So when I moved out of my house in Longwood, the tax bill in 2014 was $2,200. In 2024, the tax bill was $6,600. In ten years, that's a 300% increase or annually 11.6%. That's way more than inflation.

Anytime somebody moves, the house gets reassessed, and now their property taxes go up at their new valuation. Any new construction gets assessed at that top value as well. So with the new home tax so with the new home taxes and the assessed value from people moving, the the valuations are are far outpacing inflation. Even if you have a homestead exemption, your taxes are going up even with the military staying the same. For myself, it's going up two and a half percent every year even though I've done nothing to the house.

So the bottom line is with the increase of the gas tax, the utilities tax, the penny sales tax, the county does not need an increase in the millage rate. Beyond these new taxes, the county does not have a revenue problem. They have a spending problem. And before we talk about raising the military rates, we

need to take outside balance sheet.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next three, please. Next three, please.

Joseph Humphreys, Nancy Harman, and Cindy Holler.

I wanna remind everybody we're gonna insist on proper decorum. I don't wanna continue to warn about yelling out. If you agree with what's being said, a simple thumbs up would be great. If you don't agree, a thumbs down would be great. We can all see that. We wanna try to give the respect to the speakers and efficiently get everybody through here as quick as we possibly can. So thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Joe Humphreys, 883 Cardinal Point Cove, Sanford, Florida. It's a sad day that we're here today. A young gentleman was murdered today, who was a great spokesperson for civic responsibility, and I would like everybody to realize that Charlie Kirk was indeed a a great American and a sad loss for our country today. I don't envy the job that you all have. That's on today. I'm definitely glad that I'm not in your seats. This is not an easy job, but obviously one that has to be done. We've heard a lot of good things. Bottom line is we have to look at the entire package.

Obviously, you're looking at very specific, the millages, but as homeowners, all of us, we have a lot of things to pay to maintain these great homes that we live in in this county that goes just above that. I've had lots of conversations with our friends in Tallahassee. And just recently with the Florida Policy Institute talking about Florida's affordable housing crisis. This is not news, obviously, to any of us. But as I said, in recent years, Florida has become one of the least affordable places to live in the nation.

So that's a major, major problem. So why is that? Well, the interesting thing in looking again at the big picture from tax rates from 2024. The interesting thing is it states Seminole County has one of the highest median property taxes in The United States and is ranked four hundred and eighty third out of 3,143 counties in order of median property taxes. So it is a big issue.

But again, as a as a homeowner, I have to pay HOA fees, utility taxes, as George brought up, the gas tax, the pending sales tax. So everything that we're paying is all everything is going up. So again, my concern is let's make sure that we are indeed I know staff has put in tremendous, tremendous amount of hours. But again, let's make sure that we're getting as much bang for every penny that we're putting into this thing. So again, good luck with this process. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next.

Nancy Harman, 752 Pioneer Way, Geneva, Florida. What he said about Longview. I want to put a special thank you to Tim and to Darren for taking time to hold my hand, walk me through a lot of this. And there's other people on this staff, I'm sure. I want to thank everybody because I know this is difficult.

I also want to say I'm a member of the League of Women Voters, and I do not stand with their position. Pointing out, and Tom started to point out this, but, you know, Seminole County, we know this is the smallest county in Florida. Yet, today, we're asking to raise our rates on ourselves when we're the smallest county. So we can look and we could say, well, we're getting all these great benefits, and we are, and we're maintaining them with the money that we have. So I'd just like to keep that in your mind.

We also have all these nice home developments that have HOAs that don't pay for roads. They don't pay for specific improvements to sidewalks and things like that, because it's covered in their HOA accounts. But yet, in our business model here for our for the basis of our budget, we're talking about maintaining unincorporated roads and ditches and things of that that nature. I have to tell you, as a Geneva citizens, there was a meeting to be held Monday because with your roads people, because our roads aren't being taken care of. Our county roads, our ditches, our culverts are not being taken care of, and we continue to get flooded.

I don't see anything on the budget that, with this passing, it'll change anything in Geneva, because that's what your staff said, we're not in the budget. So I'm concerned. We're saying we want to maintain a quality of life? Okay, we'll maintain the quality of life with ditches being full in Geneva. Fine. That's that's where we'll stand. But the other thing that I have to talk about is the fact that we also have the zoos who and these other tourist groups who are benefiting from our tax dollar, And they're depending on our tax dollar. I have to ask, have you all looked at their budget? And have you looked to see that they are reducing their budgets? Have you looked to see that they're doing the most efficient things that this county's been doing?

The other question that I have I'm for parks. You know that. You know that. Why do we not set up MSBUs for Rolling Hills and for, increase it or change it, the MSBUs for these parks? We're talking right now $2,000,000 total for Rolling Hills and Wekaiva Springs to upgrade their parks. Why? Let the people who are in that area that get to use those parks pay the price. I would recommend that for Geneva. If you were to put a park out there and our people said they wanted amenities for the kids, then we should all pay for it. It's our community, it's our responsibility.

The other thing, I have a real problem with the sports complex. We have so many ball fields. Why today? Can we not kick that can down the road just a little bit farther and make a better plan? Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Next.

Okay. How does

can I can I be heard?

Yes? Yes.

Okay. Very good. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Cindy Holler, 1731 Beacon Drive, Sanford. 31 resident in Seminole County. And I must say, I'm also a fan of the zoo and of Seminole County. So I a lot of what I heard, you know, I I feel it. Love the zoo.

2022, I wanna start there, kinda skip to that second paragraph. Land acquisition ballot item was proposed by residents and conservation groups to let the public vote and decide on a very small millage increase for land preservation. This chamber said citizens could not afford a tax increase. Residents in five counties approved the land preservation in November 2022 and votes in both Osceola and Lake Counties passed by 80% or more in 2024. Bottom line is we couldn't vote for that.

So anyway, jumping up. Sorry about that. 2023 residential garbage pickup fee increased from $240 to $300 per year, which was a 25% increase. November 2024, the penny sales tax approved by the public with no mention about future tax increases being required the following year. If these increases had been known for years as stated by Pierre Zumbauer, why was this not put out to the public before the vote?

August 2025, the George had mentioned it. The gas tax, 5¢ per gallon for fifty years was approved maximum allowed by state law, raised the gas tax to 11¢ per gallon. That's an 83.3% increase expected to generate 5,500,000 in the first full year of the tax. Also on that date, public service utilities tax increased 6% to the current rate of 10%, which is maximum allowed by state law, a 150% increase expected to generate $13,300,000 in the first year of the tax. And here we are today, September 10, proposed millage 5.375, increase of 10.3 over the current rate of four point eight seven four point eight seven five one.

That's an addition that was mentioned before of the 2.9 increase with the Save Our Homes. This increase will generate over $44,000,000 in new property tax revenue for the county compared to adopted fiscal year twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five. In closing, the millage rate should not be raised. The and I personally feel those on a fixed income will be most adversely affected. And so I hope it does not happen, and I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Miss Dominique, how many how many forms do you have

remaining? Approximately 15,

mister chairman.

So go ahead and call the next three. If there's anybody else here to speak on this matter, please fill out a form in the lobby and get it up to the clerk immediately, please. Next three.

Richard Creedon, Virginia Creedon, and Al Leiker.

Leiker? Leiker. Leiker. Creedon, Creedon, Leiker.

Virginia Creedon, November Ms.

Creedon, if you'll come up to the other podium, and feel free to move that microphone.

Virginia Creighton, 1172 Apache Drive, Geneva, Florida. Seminole County is one of the smaller counties in this area in landmass and in population, But we have one of the highest taxes. Fallujah and Orange County don't have rates as high as ours. We can look at statistics, we can look at the number of people there. We can also consider that we have a large rural area which doesn't require the services that are given to the other parts of town.

We don't have bus service, we don't have water and sewer, but we have the higher taxes because property values are high and new people buying new houses don't realize that their taxes are going up. I had a young lady just recently say she was leaving an exercise class that we did because she was getting a job. They had gotten a tax bill. Their income just doesn't stretch now to cover. So she is putting her child in daycare and going to pay her taxes that she has in all different directions, not only real estate, but utilities and everything else that are going up in this area.

Meanwhile, we have five points with debt that has to be met. And we have all the empty offices in those buildings. So we are paying debt for buildings we are not really utilizing, and then we're saying we wanna put money in reserves. Now why are we putting the money in reserves? Do we wanna build more buildings?

Do we wanna build more sports complexes that maybe the voters wouldn't support? So we put the money into reserves, and then the county commission can vote to have these things without the people having to actually support them. We'll only have to pay for them, but not have to be in favor of them. So therefore, I'm not in favor of the millage rate raise. I'm hoping it will go back to what it was the way it is in the other counties around us. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next up, please.

Good evening. I am Richard Creedon. I live at 1172 Apache Drive in Geneva, Florida. Ladies and gentlemen, you have a serious credibility problem with Seminole County taxpayers. In order to restore some trust, you must first stop rubbing salt into the wounds you created by raising the utility tax by 150% and the gasoline tax by a nickel.

Step number one would be to have absolutely no increase in the millage rate. That should remain identical to the current millage rates. We have been told that the sheriff is the bad guy and causing the tax increases. It is true that their budget has increased by 15,000,000, but you are proposing to increase reserves by almost the same amount. Why?

Reserves are a rainy day piggy bank to be used in difficult financial times such as now. Instead, you are choosing to add millions to that pity bag piggy bank and increase our taxes to do it. This goes against common sense and logic. In addition, without any millage tax increase, the existing millage rate plus the other new taxes would bring in 31,000,000 in new money. This is double the increase the sheriff is requesting.

So we see that the sheriff is not the problem. Rather, you have used him as the excuse. The county does not have a revenue problem. Rather, it has a spending problem or an addiction. A year ago, we were exhorted to vote for the 1% local sales tax or other taxes would have to be raised.

We listened to you and voted yes on the 1%, and then we're rewarded with a barrage of new taxes anyway. Do you really think that we would have voted for the sales tax if we knew what you would plan for us in 2025? If so, you're living in a dream world. Lastly, we recently been told that you knew about a structural budget imbalance for several years, but kicking the can down the road happened each year. Why did you not share this information with us earlier?

Rather, in the 2223 budget on page eight, it says that the budget is structurally balanced. Ditto for 2324 budget on page seven. In the 2425 budget, it says that the budget is balanced with no tax increase or use of federal rescue plan funds. Not one word of any structural imbalance was included in the three budgets. Now do you understand why you have a serious credibility problem?

We feel like you were lying to us and treating us like mushrooms. We give you an a for your efforts to turn the sausia of an ill conceived millage tax increase into a silk purse filled with milk and honey, but we give you an f for the results. You have failed. Please stop these totally unnecessary tax increases now so that we might have some positive thoughts about our board of county commissioners before the twenty twenty six elections. Thank you.

Thank you. Next next three, please.

Wafa Esposito, Deanna Houston, and David Levitt.

While this speaker is getting ready, does one of the okay.

Hello. Waffa Esposito 5040 Hoxhamok Way Can

you pull the microphone down closer to you dear so everybody can hear you?

Do you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Waffle, s p z two five zero four zero Hawks, Hammock Way, Sanford. I am in opposing of this increase, and this is my tax bill, would be $471. As I said last time I spoke here, I don't see the need for this new tax increase which would cost me $4.71, especially knowing that the general fund is sitting on 56,000,001 half. I think keeping the $8.75 notes is going to generate the expected 17,000,000, and that will satisfy the need 15,000,000 requested by the sheriff department, which I sincerely hope they can also deal for us with the post COVID intersection beggars for everyone while being here.

Seminole County being the smallest, you have heard that, with roads maintained by by HOA and its healthy general fund, I am afraid asking to increase taxes by 4.7 compared to Orange County, three times the population and twice the size, I guess. And those have been investigated. I don't think this will be looking good for us. I think we need to follow the healthy fiscal trend, the second page, set by the state who claims to have paid 50% of their debt. I don't think we have one.

I don't know if we have one. I hope we don't have one as a county. However, following their trend in putting a constitutional amendment for November 2026 to eliminate property tax or reduce it, especially for first homeowner. So that's what I would call communicating with the community or with the citizens. This should prompt the county to follow suit where we can list the needs of the upcoming election and get a vote on them.

I am sure you heard about counties like Saint John slashing their budget by 3,600,000. Sanford City the other day opposing fire assessment. I really hope for good reason. I don't know. Anyhow, they are trying. Everybody is trying to reduce. That's the point. Checking up on the various area media, which I suggested the county can get a college intern to scour citizens, the last page, are posed to see the trend and the concerns and the focus. I gathered that the focus should be for impact fees from builders and investors to cover necessities. As I said last time, I checked with the various members of the advocacy group.

The penny sales tax along the road tax, we were told, would lighten the tax base burden. So I wasn't wrong. Mister Lazino, we also have

Try to

wrap it

up for us.

Okay. Remember, we always we also have the gas tax and the utility tax to honor on top of this increase. Conclusion here, let's keep the current tax, let's plan for the future increases with future plans, and yes, I am glad to hear about the boosting of the tourism. We really fee I really feel like we could make a lot of money as a county by better publicizing our county. And thank you so much.

Thank you. Next, please. Good evening.

Good evening. Deanna Houston, 750 Saginaw Point, Lake Mary, Florida. Gonna take a little different approach, but first wanted to start out saying how much we do appreciate what y'all do. We do know. I mean, when you hear the news today about the shooting and the 09:11, one person said, I think, well, I'm glad we're safe.

But things are changing here. Things are changing here economically. We're seeing changes in tourism, even in Orange County. We are seeing jobs being reduced. AI, we just saw the jobs numbers be changed drastically by, what, 900 something thousand or 900 something thousand for the whole country.

We've got increased utilities. Duke, for the last, is going be giving me $40 extra charge a month for a year so they can recoup hurricane costs in addition to our increased utilities. AI, I don't know if that's happening in Florida yet, but it's affecting the utility cost in so many states already, all the data centers that AI is using. You can see around the vacant buildings that we have, all the different buildings for lease, some boarded up buildings that we saw in 1792. All of these are indications of a bad economy.

And a couple of years ago, I don't remember who on this commission said, I can't approve that tax. Our people can't do that. And that was for the to keep us natural. We also have many older people. We can see a lot of us are older here. We're on more fixed incomes. And you hear stories of people losing their homes because they can't pay their taxes. We also have less children. The US News last year said we had 66,680 schools children in Seminole County in the Seminole County Public School. This year according to the Seminole County website, we have 59,000.

That's a drop of seven, excuse me, 10%. So do we need new parks? Do we need new complexes? I don't think so. People aren't having children like they were. People aren't moving to Florida like they were. So we really need to rethink what we, the people, can handle. So just reconsider, and I thank you for what you all do, but please do not put this increase in. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Well, hello. David Levitt, longtime resident and business owner in Seminole County. Address, please? Is Seminole Longwood.

Street address?

I don't need to give that. Thank you. So in his opening monologue, the county manager used the term more than once concerning the county being responsible for essential services. So the question is, what is essential services? And I think that's what you gotta take a deeper look at here before you go into another increase in our property taxes.

Speaking of essential services, is the $100,000 a year for the last two and a half years that the county manager spent for a consultant essential? I don't think so. We didn't pay that before. We only pay that since he's been here. So this trifecta of taxes on top of a billion dollar penny tax. So the two largest taxpayers in Seminole County, Duke Energy and Florida Power. You probably already know that. When you increase our property taxes, guess what? You're increasing their property taxes too. I think you should already know that as well.

Guess what else utility companies are allowed to do in the state of Florida? Increase our electric rates when their operating costs go up. And yes, their property taxes are part of their operating costs and they get to include that. So this we're getting a double hit from the utility companies because we have to cover their operating costs because their property taxes are going up. Plus you raise your utility taxes on top of that.

So that's craziness. So speaking of essential services, again, what in the world is the county doing in the business of sports and sports complexes? It it it does doesn't make any sense to me. Is that essential services to the residents? I don't think so.

$7,000,000 for Rolling Hills on the backs of all the residents is how much the county has spent since the Rolling Hills takeover or buyout from a company that went belly up. So Seminole County is also second place in $100,000 and up salaries in more than one category and compared to surrounding counties, by the way. You're number two behind Orange County per 1,000 residents. You're also number two behind Orange County for 100,000 jobs and higher per square mile. All the other counties around us beat your socks off when it comes to high paying salaries in the counties.

So I have I do have an ask. I don't mind sitting with somebody in your budget office and going do have a background in finance and business finance. I've been a very successful business owner for many years. Thank you.

Thank you. Next three, please.

Pete Bewes, Ron Leithart, and Eunice Brown.

What was the first one?

Pete Bewes.

Bewes? Yes, sir. Come

on down, sir.

PTOs, I'm not afraid to get my address. 5376 Ohio Avenue. I live up in Northwest, Seminole County. I'm here to, I guess, to represent the elderly that are on fixed incomes. I'm retired. I voted for every one of you up there. Tax and spend. Tax and spend. Why do you think everybody's left the North? Because they've been pushed out. I can't afford. I can't afford. And then you keep we what you built a bicycle trail from one end of the county to the other. When's the last time you saw a bike on that bicycle trail? You wanna see bicycles?

Come on up to my my my corner of the county on any Saturday or Sunday morning. There are groups of 50 to 75 riding in single file. Oh, no. 50 in a in a mob, four abreast. I have a cycle. I've got my cycle on that on those roads. It's called a Harley. I have to pay tax. I have to have license and registration. I pay a fuel tax. What tax do those guys? You wanna generate some income? There you go. Leaded. We really need that that fiberless cart thing around the mall.

I mean, if your kid says he wants those $250 pair of of Nike shoes and you can't afford it, you can't afford it. You know, you know, when your college students say, dad, I'm on the I'm you've given me this budget, but, oh, I need some more money. Send me some more money. I did they they brought up and I will say this, ladies

and gentlemen,

we are blessed by God

to

have that man, sheriff Lehman, to be our sheriff. He's outstanding. But if the budget is getting bad, do we really need excuse me. Do we really need a flight department? I spent forty five years of my professional career in the aviation industry. I know what it costs to run that. And if we need to cut, need to Seminole County is one of the smallest counties in in the state. You can't have all this stuff, folks, if you can't afford it. It's that simple. So Margaret Thatcher, the informal former prime minister of Great Britain, I'll paraphrase, eventually, you run out of other people's money to spend. I voted for every one of you, but if you you agree to increase this tax, you've lost my vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Ron Lichtuk, 1036 Winding Water Circle, Winter Springs. I am against the millage rate increase. As you probably are aware, today is September 10, that's peak of hurricane season. And apparently, in Seminole County, it's also peak of tax season. So you had a gas tax, as you know, and if you do it on a percentage basis compared to Orange County, it's a 100% higher.

100%. Okay. I know we're talking about, you know, 5¢, but let's keep in mind it was already a penny higher in the first place. Now, in my case, I leave Winter Springs, but I go to Winter Park a lot, and there's a Costco there. I'm gonna continue to buy all my gas at Costco, and I'll make sure I will not buy any gas in Seminole County because I'm a man of principle. Right? So I was thinking about joining BJ's here that's opening up in Casselburgh, but you know what? If you're gonna tax me because I'm thinking about the the the gas pump account concept, well, well then why should I? Right? But for me, I'm again a man of principle, I don't believe in it.

For me, you're acting like a copy and paste principle. You know, you have to compete with cities. That's really what it's all about, really. Don't do a copy and paste. I'm sick and tired of copy and paste. So anyway, on the gas stack, we had a four to one vote. Right? Bob DeLarry was the only one against it. Right? And the rest of you were for it. And I believe he also had a vote, of course, on the property tax, but it's not final. It's also four to one. Well, you know what I to me, you know what the four represents? That means a category for hurricane. That's what it means to me.

Right? So while we have to name these storms, right, it's a category for hurricane, so we have to use the alphabet. So I'm afraid, Amy, you got the first one, and then Andrew, you got the second one because when you do the the alphabet, that's what you get. So but anyway, the going back to Winter Springs, you know, we have, of course, have our own police department. You know, seeing a Seminole County police car in my city is almost as bad as seeing a Lamborghini in Winter Springs. It doesn't happen very often. Okay? I see them once in a while. But if you told me we're gonna cut your services in Winter Springs, I'm gonna say, no, you're not cutting my services. I don't need you.

The ratio of Winter Springs police to Seminole County in my city is at least twenty twenty to one. Okay. You go out the city limits, then you see more of you, but but the bottom line is that's a a big problem. So but yet, you you have a millage rate of that's twice as high as the Winter Springs millage rate. Right? So where's all this money go? Okay. So I'm not gonna repeat, but like you said, many people already talked about it. Please don't. So but it looks like I'm running out of time.

You are. I wanted to mention one thing. I I feed the whole United States in manufacturing, and you should see how many tariffs are on our quotes. There's thousands of quotes with full blown tariffs. And I bet you there are more than a half a million quotes, and bottom line is it's gonna end up in inflation when they start buying. Right?

Thank you very

much for your time. Thank you. Good

evening. My name is Eunice Brown. My address is 4520 Douglas Street, Sanford, Florida 32771. As I reflect I reflect on as we did the flag, we stand up and we did our allegiance of the flag. And one of the two of the things that really stuck out with me is under God, and the second is liberty for all. And I am gonna go with

a different

spin, and it won't be repetitious. Oh, sorry. Oh, shoot. Okay.

Oh,

trying to get my thing. Okay. I'll come in. Sorry. Scriptures against unjust and excessive tax burdens. Do not be opposed of overburden the people. Do not take advantage of the widows or the fatherless. That's Exodus twenty two twenty two. Raising tax debt hit that hit fixed income residents, widows, and seniors goes against God hard for protecting the vulnerable. Fair weight weight and measure financial integrity.

The Lord detests dishonest scale, but accurate weight find favor with him. Proverbs eleven one. Transparent and fairness in how money is collected and spent is a biblical principle. Broken promises like the pumice sale tax violates the standard. Do not burden people beyond what they can bear.

They tied up heavy heavies, cumbersome loath, and put them on other people's shoulder, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Matthew twenty three four, leaders should not place unnecessary financial loads to citizens without sharing in the sacrifice of finding alternatives. Leadership serve, not export. Woe to those who unjust law, to those who issue oppose decree, Isaiah ten one. A millet increase coupled with utilities and gas hype can feel like oppressed decree among struggling families.

Justice for the poor and the needy. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the righteous of all who are destitute. Speak up for judge fairly. Defend the right of the poorly and the needy. Proverbs 31, eight, nine. Raising taxes during a time of financial hardship violates this principle, instead leaders should protect and defend the vulnerability. God heart is not God heart is for stewardship, not waste. So then each of us will give an account account of ourselves to God. Romans fourteen twelve. Ma'am.

Before demanding more from the people, leaders are accountable to stewards stewards where what already has been entrusted us. And as we, as people of faith, we believe that I oppose the militancy.

Thank you. Okay, folks. I'm gonna I'm I know we don't have a whole lot of speakers left, but I'm gonna insist that you hold your comments to three minutes as close as possible. I've given many speakers a lot of latitude so far. We're not likely to continue that course of action. I would also again urge you if you're wanting to speak on this matter, fill out a form now because we're getting ready to close off. No more forms coming in. So everybody can have a good evening tonight. Go ahead. Next three, please.

Eric Fiebler, Fred Peering, and Deidra Barncot.

Good evening, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for this time this evening. My name is Eric Fiedler. I live in Altamonte Springs. I've lived I've lived there for ten years.

Your address, if you would, please?

801 Lake Drive.

Thank you. I'm a

property manager by by real estate, fix it up. I have a lot of tenants here in Seminole County, also in Orange County. And so I was kind of surprised when I got my trim notices from Orange County Seminole County this year. I have two here from Orange County. Their general county fund trim rate millage rate is 4.4347.

Seminole County's proposed is over 21% higher than Orange County. That caught me by surprise. My, tax bills for Orange County, these are for apartment complexes, are for the just the county are an increase of 42.4%. And then I just wanted to address a few things. I saw kind of on the website for Seminole County.

They said that the the millage hasn't been increased for sixteen years. It's been touched on just slightly, but property assessors that how I've learned is they increase assessments every year. And oftentimes, it's paired with a millage increase. This year obviously we're getting an increase in what the assessed value is of our properties and this proposed increase in the millage. So it's a it's like a double taxation and it hits hits especially hard.

So I just brought I just brought my trim notices for a few properties. I have one in District 2. The county taxes are increasing 20% if this proposed rate comes through. I have one in District 4. The county taxes are increasing 21.1% if if this mulch rate

is

approved. I have one in District 5, and the county taxes would increase 20 over 21% year over year. And then and then my own house, I have homestead exemption obviously, but it's increasing 13.9% year over year, and I've lived there for ten years. Unfortunately, I don't have a fixed income, but I just bring these to illustrate that, like, our tenants who are small businesses, their auto repair shops, their restaurants, They're having a difficulty. I know my neighbors are having difficulties with rising costs, and I would just encourage you guys to be responsible.

This money that is can be taken from you at the force of losing your home or your property is a huge a huge responsibility you guys need to take seriously. And so I would encourage you guys to not increase the military this year. Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm Fred Pearing. 2585 I live in unincorporated Seminole County. I'm I'm Amy Orphan. And I saw on television some time ago used car sales and say, we haven't raised taxes in twenty years. Well, you know, the millage has been fixed for fourteen years, but thanks to the property assessor who's your best friend, we've had a 3% increase in real property value in 2023, 3% in 2024, 3% in 2022.

So we got 9% raise for all you folks without changing the millage. And with the new proposed, you've got 2.9% for the assessment. And then with the increase in millage of 10.26, we're gonna be at 13.6% more this year in taxes. And unfortunately for us in unincorporated Seminole County, the tax rate's going up on electricity, telephone, all of our utilities so that we're going to end up paying another 500 or $600 a year in taxes just for that particular part. Prudent planning.

I don't know. You know, that mess over at Oxford that you guys are having fun with yet, you allocated more than $22,000,000 just to get the property in front the frontage property for those businesses there. And, you know, if you look over there, all of this all of the sewer, water, electricity that we're paying for, the developer's contribution is, you know, insignificant. He needs to pay for all of that rather than the taxpayers. And then you've got another 65,000,000 you're planning on spending, you know, for the new sports complex.

So, you know, I just I just wonder, you know, how prudent you are in in thinking about where you spend your money and what you spend it on. The last page, you can't read. It's an eye chart. It's just the data that produces all it's the last thirty years of taxes that I've paid and and the millage. And I think you probably have a hard copy so you can see it. I just wish that I could send Trump an email and say, you know, I've got a budget shortfall, I would like you to increase my Social Security by 20%. That's all I have.

Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Call the next next three.

Miguel Pico, Michelle Smith, and Takoa Puri.

Pico, Smith, Empori.

Good evening, everyone. Miguel Pico. 205 Alpine Street, Altamonte Springs. And, so a month ago, I took my kids to, Disney. Very, very expensive. But my kids made some friends around there. Every time Disney is pretty much expensive. You go there, you buy. I usually don't drink, but I was like, I'm on vacation. Let me grab a drink. $15. I said, never mind. I'm not an alcoholic, I don't need it. So I'll pass on that. So but my kids were so make friend little friends in there and then I realized they're really generous with my money.

I said, well, I love them. You guys are not my kids. I do love you because I'm a man of God. But, stop being generous with other people's money. It's because like somebody here said before, at one point you're gonna run out. And so I'm not gonna repeat anything that everybody else said. We live in a great nation. We live in Florida, beautiful state. I left New York twelve years ago. I left Ecuador where I'm from, third world country, and I'm so happy that I'm in Florida.

I get to carry my gun. I get to protect my family. I get to exercise my first amendment. I'm so happy that I can say a lot of things wherever I wanna say it. But we are struggling. The business is real. We're waiting like somebody said right here. We don't have a good economy right now. I'm a blue collar worker. I do make good money for what I do. I do air conditioning, and I know you guys cannot live without AC. So, yeah, I'm your guy. I should be sitting up there actually. So but I also know that it's not easy doing your job, and I'm a soccer lover. I love soccer, and we're have to go work next year.

And usually when I watch a game, I was like looking at the guy and he doesn't score, and I started criticizing the guy. And I people say, hey. But, you know, it's easy to be on your side, but go over there. And I was like, yeah. But I don't I don't get paid what they get paid to do that. I don't practice every single day to perform, so I do have a higher expectation. So I get to say that. Do it. Why you didn't score that goal? The same thing here. I you guys are here for the reason. I mean, I I I read about each one of you before. You guys are really, really smart people. So just use it, please. The economy is not that good right now, and I mean it.

It's it's it's stressful. It's a lot of nights I don't sleep. And once again, I I make good money, but my tax keep increasing. Everything just keep increasing. And if you were to get a vote today for whoever agrees and oppose this, you guys know you're not gonna pass that because everybody's opposing so far by the numbers numbers don't lie. Right? But anyway, guys, god bless you. And I was gonna be really nice if the lady read a scripture that says Matthew twelve thirty four and then what it mean what it says is you, brute of lipers, how can you are evil say any good anything good for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of it. In essence, it's what's inside of your heart is what comes out of your mouth. So please be generous for our taxes.

Don't spend it crazy.

Thank you.

Good evening. Michelle Smith, Board Chairman for the Sharing Center, 600 North Highway 1792 Longwood, 32750. Good evening and I wanted to begin by saying that we appreciate each and every single one of you, what you do for the county and how well you serve in doing your due diligence. I'm here today as an ambassador and an advocate for the Sharing Center as you move through this final budgeting process. And as you know, the Sharing Center is the largest provider for comprehensive critical services for our most vulnerable and the homeless in our community.

We do that through our free pantry and emergency financial assistance. We do that through the Oasis for showers and laundry, Project Rise for the life skills education and employment preparation, free mental health with a licensed medical professional, and soon to come, our workforce attainable housing initiative, all life changing programs. So as the Sharing Center embarks on our fortieth anniversary next month, I wanted to just briefly highlight our strong and effective efforts to be a good partner serving with you in Seminole County. And as a good steward of our responsibilities, we continue to develop strong relationships in the private sector to help financially support our efforts to continue providing services for those facing catastrophic life situations. In fact, we have a track record of requesting funds only from the, federal and state monies, and, we share that simply to say that your investment and your return on investment is one that you can take great pride in for the voters and the community.

The Sharing Center looks to continue to offer an even broader range of services for those vulnerable and homeless, And moving forward, we look forward to a continued strong relationship with the county as we continue to pursue our mission and to do that with the private sector, helping us. Thank you so much.

Next.

Good evening again. I am honored to serve as the president and CEO of the Sharing Center. And while we're having this valuable conversation, I wanted to share a few updates as we close out our physical year. At the Sharing Center, our mission is simple but urgent, to prevent hunger and homelessness while restoring hope, dignity, and stability for our neighbors here in Seminole County. We come alongside families and individuals to ensure no one in Seminole County has to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table.

This past year has been marked by both challenge and impact, but I'm proud to share with you that together with our community partners, over 51,000 neighbors received services through our programs. We distributed 2,500,000 pounds of food to families facing food insecurity. And through our Project RISE workforce development program, 163 individuals graduated, 74 of them secured employment, and are now on the path to financial stability. Additionally, at the OASIS, this fiscal year alone, we've housed two zero seven unhoused individuals. These are not just numbers.

They represent lives restored, children sleeping in their own beds, and parents retaining hope. None of this work happens in isolation. It is only possible because of the partnership we have with Seminole County government, our business leaders, faith community leaders, and residents who believe as we do that compassion must be prepared with action. As we prepare for this new fiscal year ahead, we remain steadfast in our vision that every neighbor in Seminole County has the opportunity not just to strive, but thrive. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you for your leadership and for the ways that you continue to invest in the well-being of our neighbors. God bless you.

Thank you. Next three.

Deidra Varnikot, John Herrardi, and Al Laker.

Are those the final three you have?

Yes,

sir. Okay. That'll conclude it.

Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for your time. My name is Daedri Barnicott. I live in Longwood, 2371 Westwood Drive, Longwood.

And I just I'm wearing my Turning Point USA hat today because such a tragedy happened with the killing of Charlie Kirk. And after I got home from work, really just wanted to be home. But then I remember hearing him speak about how we need to be involved in our community and get our voices heard. So I know most things have been covered this evening, but I am here to emphatically oppose any additional taxes for Seminole County. I do feel like there have been, with the penny tax being added, the gas tax, utilities tax, everything that's been covered, we don't need anymore.

We've got leadership at the federal level doing what they can to try to get our taxes down. Seems to be happening at the state level. You know, I respectfully request the county level do the same. And just on a side note, my husband and I fairly recently canceled Netflix, and so our entertainment is watching the commissioners meetings. And it's fun, I highly recommend it. So.

You have a goals issue, my

Yeah. That's right. Yeah, so maybe we're not the most exciting people, but, you know, it's been very fun and informative, And, you know, we're trying to learn and understand and do our part. And, you know, I do appreciate all you do and, you know, watching you a couple times a month. But, you know, I do respectfully request that please do not increase this tax. Thank you.

Thank you. Before the next speaker gets gets going, I just wanna remind I'm not sure if the county manager has been advised yet. The president has stated that we will fly the flags at half mast until Monday. So just make sure our staff gets that this afternoon or this evening before we all go home. Thank you very much. Okay, sir.

Good evening, chairman, commissioners. John Horvath, Thousand 4 Bradford Drive, Winter Park, Florida. That's the Winter Park mail address with the Seminole County Homeowners Association, as you many many of you know. Listen, a couple of prior speakers talking about the Homestead and Save Our Homes, I think that's been part of the problem over the years as we've changed the tax stuff. You I've lived in my house for fifty years.

If I go to sell my house in a couple of years, whoever buys it, their taxes are gonna more than triple. Is that fair to them or to me? And the gentleman that was a property owner, those are not homestead exempted, and he has to pay the full value on the property for the taxes. So that's part of the problems that we have here, not only in Seminole County, but elsewhere when you have an inadequate property tax situation for everybody. Now talk about the budget.

I've been this is my close to my fiftieth budget hearing I've been to in the last fifty years, and I think it's one of the most crowded ones I've seen. Usually, I'm one of only two or three speakers in the past, but I've watched the budget go from $250,000,000 to over $1,000,000,000. And I've been in the county my whole life, almost eighty years, and my family's in the grow business. So a lot of the property these people live in now, I probably either owned or serviced them as orange groves or cow pastures. So you don't have the grove tractors on the road, but you got people on the road.

So and I was involved with the fire department. Was talking to the chief earlier tonight. Go back to Station 23, the oldest station in the county that hasn't been updated and rebuilt, and I think it's about time that's done. But just to give give an example, one of those fire trucks we see going down the road to a fire, they're right at a million dollars. That's just for the truck, not the equipment that goes in it, the hoses, air packs, or the all that other equipment.

Plus, the last two years, when I've talked, sheriff Lima has not requested any deputies in those last couple years. He said he was properly staffed. Well, my concern was that if in two years or three years, all of a sudden he realizes he's deputy short, all of a sudden he's gonna come and say he wants a a millage increase like he did this year. But it wasn't for that. It was because law enforcement officers' salaries in this county and everywhere else were escalating.

I was at a meeting where one of the Casselberry commissioners said they just had their salaries or their policemen go to XX, and Sanford went to XXX. So we are getting this escalation of salaries, and we don't want to lose our deputies, and they don't want to lose their patrolmen. But we've we've not paying for it, so we've got to think about that and talk to our neighboring cities and see how we can control some of this. You don't have that technical problem with the school system because it's a countywide school district. And the teacher, whether they're teaching in Sanford or Winter Springs, they're getting the same salaries as everybody else.

And they're not maybe they don't feel they have enough salary, but that's it. But that's what I'm looking at, that we need to maintain this budget because nothing costs less today than it did five years ago. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers?

No, sir.

Seeing none, we'll close public comment and go to board discussion. I'll kick it off and just say, for the benefit of many of you that weren't here at the last hearing, and I know many of you in the audience, I will assure you this county staff and this county commission have spent a lot of time, a great deal of time, more time than they've ever spent since I arrived here in 2018 going through this budget process, looking for efficiencies. I wanna thank staff. I wanna thank our constitutionals who have gone and scrubbed their budgets as close and as trim as they possibly could. It truly has been a mission.

You know, typically, these counties start their budget process, you know, somewhere in the June timeframe. We ask our staff to endeavor upon this at the end of last year to kick it off at the beginning of this year, at least one hundred and twenty days in advance. Prior to that, they were looking at things two and three years ago. I heard some comments tonight about we didn't know this day was coming. Well, you attended the budget hearings for the last several years, you would heard Mr.

Jeks and his counterparts talk about the concern of where we were going to land in the next two to three years, and thus here we are. I will assure you that nobody up here wants to see any increase whatsoever, including myself as a business owner with non homesteaded commercial property. Like one of the individuals indicated here earlier tonight, at commercial property it's going to increase 21% to 22%. Do I like it? Absolutely not.

Not as a businessman. However, I realize there's a price to pay to live in a community that's safe, high quality of life, and enjoying the things that we all enjoy. So with that, I'll pass it on to my fellow commissioners for any further comments or inquiries from staff. There may be some that you want from staff at this point. So I'll start with commissioner Lockhart, and we'll work our way down.

Commissioner Constantine already has his mic.

Oh, was

just gonna get a closer

I don't wanna I don't wanna

That's okay. Go

ahead, commissioner Constantine.

I've been in office in many different positions in my life. I've been a city commissioner. I've been a mayor. I've been a state representative. I've been a state senator, and I've been proud also to serve each and every one of you for the last thirteen years here at the county.

I will promise you that I have been working and I'm I'm not gonna speak for my fellow commissioners, but I know that they are also been looking at this budgets, you know, very closely for months and months. But I have been working with our budget manager here, for lack of a better term, so you all understand what Tim does, Tim Jegs, and our county manager to find each and every savings. I know you don't understand because no one, including myself, understands all the intricacies of of the county budget, or the state budget, which I will tell you they never lowered their tack their their touches. They always lower our taxes. Just want you to think about that.

I was in the state legislature. I know that. They lower our taxes, not theirs, and they pass it along for us to do. But right now, let's talk about the present. The present, I am looking at every single possible savings. I have used the word that our county manager stole from me this after this evening, shared sacrifice constantly. I'm gonna I I'm I'm telling that to our county to our our all of our constitutionals and to all of our general budget.

You

probably don't know, and if you do, good for you. But our budget is about 33% of the entire budget of the county. The constitutionals. Or 66% of the budget. That's not a condemnation of them.

That's the facts. And what we have to deal with with is reality. And I have not you know, I I am still working, and I have told this, like I said, to you tonight, and I pledge to you tonight, and I've told this to mister Jackson, and I've told this to the county manager. I'm still looking for every penny of savings that we can get in every one of the budgets. Every one of the budgets.

And we still have time and we're still working. Tonight, what we're doing is the maximum. We have two more weeks. We're looking at it. I'm not suggesting that we're going to go down to what was the millage before. I don't know if we will go if there's any cuts to be had, but I'm telling you that I know I, for one, am still looking for them. Mister Jets, what is the total increase of the budget of the county the county commission controls directly this year?

As of the tentative budget, 1.1

point 3%, ladies and gentlemen.

1.3 or 1.1?

We it 1.1 now?

It's 1.1 now.

Okay. It was one point it's 1.1. Just please understand this for a second. 1.1%. One point well, I've heard a lot of things. Oh, we had 60,000,000,000 million more here in

a one

hundred 1.1% increase the budget that these five folks control. It was it was last year, it was less than other budgets also. The cumulative rate, even with any increase because I heard a lot of things about Orange County, Lake County, Volusia County, blah blah blah blah blah, Increase. The total millage in Seminole County is less than any of them even with the increase. Is that a fact, Mister Chicks?

Say yes or no. Say it loudly. Yes or no. No. Say it loudly. Yes or no. Yes. It is. Somebody can say no. You can I mean, you can say it? It's not true.

Can we pull up a visual on that so that there's not a we did this in the first budget meeting where we went through the neighboring counties. I think it's worth that.

All yes. And and that's great. All I'm trying to say is, folks, we are work we are trying. We will continue to try. As I said, I've been in a lot of positions. This is making me sick to my stomach.

County comparison. Do you have the county comparison?

Yeah. Go ahead and put that

comparisons to me.

Like that's what The question I asked you and you said yes and that find okay. That should Commissioner of her Lake might be Okay. Alright. I'm just

I think Lake is the only one, but

am I is it still my turn, guys? Okay.

We're just trying to I

I know you are, and and I appreciate it, but I mean, we're all going to okay.

There you go.

I I don't wanna lose my train of thought. In the years that I've been in office, this would be the highest increase that I ever voted for. I don't like it. I don't wanna do it. And if there's any chance that I don't have to, if there's any chance that our that the that the ensuring that this county is making sure that it's paying for itself for not only today's needs but the future needs, I will find every way I can to not to lower whatever tax increase we have right now.

That's a that's a pledge. I will make that pledge. I'm not saying I don't think the others, I'm sure they will would say the same thing, but I'm not speaking for them. I'm speaking for myself. I would do that. Is that did you bring it up? Okay. Good. So I want you to see that. I want you to remember 1.1% this year. Are we have been living. Off of reserves for a while.

But I I just didn't

I don't think any one of you. Have not had a increase in your salary in the last seventeen years. If you haven't, I'm sorry for you. I really am. You're in the wrong profession.

I we write have not had an increase in the ad valorem in Seminole County in seventeen years. I don't like this. I believe we still hopefully, we can still find cuts that will be able to reduce the increase of our ad valorem. And I agree with every one of them that, you know, our constitutionals are doing the same thing and might have to continue to do the same thing as we go over the next two weeks. Because, again, this has to be shared sacrifice.

So I'm not I'm going to vote for this tonight to move on, but I am pledging to you that I will look for every single cost cut that I possibly can over the next thing. Miss miss Celery, how many times have you and I talked over the last couple of days? Three, four, five times? Yes, I'm working with the people that have come up here, that that feel that they have legitimate cuts, not just throwing numbers out, but legitimate cuts. I will look at them, and I will talk to them.

One of my former aides everybody knows who American First Prosperity is. One of my former aides was president of American for for his prosperity. I'm talking and working with him and trying to find cuts in this budget. As I said, with mister Jeks and mister, Gray. But please understand, there is not one person here, not one person here that is not feeling ill about having to look at these increases.

But I will also tell you this, you live in a county who cares very much about the quality of life of their children, of their adults, and consistently gets gets ranked as the number one place to live, the number one place to work, the number one place to raise a family. And by the way, I just wanna say, the reason that you it's not that we have less children. We have less children going to public school. They're going to private schools, and they're going to charter schools. We don't have less children in Seminole County.

We have a lot more children in Seminole County, but we have a great school system both in the charter schools, private schools, and public schools. Just wanted to state that for a fact. I I I I I I I'm thankful that each and every one of you came here today. I am thankful. I am thankful that I heard your concerns, and I will take them back.

I believe these other commissioners will take it back. I think our staff that is working on this budget will take it back and and try to work this, and I think our constitutionals will take it back and try to work their budget a little bit leaner also. So thank you very much for being here, and I promise you that in two weeks, over

the

next two weeks, I will do everything I can to reduce this millage. But I'm not telling you we can. I'm telling you I will look and I will try. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioner. The chair has passed the gavel to me. He's using the restroom. I don't know why I felt compelled to tell you that, but I thought it would give you

a little break in the news. And here he comes. Talked long enough that you can come back. There you go.

We were concerned I might actually govern a meeting. Please. I'll I'll pass it back to you.

Can you

Mister Constantine has completed. He's completed. You're back.

Alright. Who who else has it? Any mister Lockhart?

Sick to your stomach is a good word for it. And it's not because I'm afraid of the decision that has to be made because philosophically, fundamentally, I'm committed to keeping the taxes in Seminole County as low as they can possibly be and delivering the best services we can possibly deliver. But this isn't a philosophical decision. This is a practical decision, and it's based on facts. And it's also based on unknown.

And, we are operating in a very different environment than we were operating in even a year or two ago. I, you know, somebody made a comment that we were blaming the sheriff and or blaming someone and or using him as a scapegoat. And I and I wanna say the sheriff is here tonight, and and he's here tonight as a partner with us. We rely heavily on the services that he and the men and women of his operation provide, and and, fundamentally, local government exists to provide public safety, not just the sheriff, but fire, EMS, emergency management, roads and storm water. If you've ever been in a situation with our storms recently, roads and storm water is a part of our public safety operation.

So everyone can have a difference of opinion to a degree about what an essential service is, and we can debate other types of economic development projects, I suppose. Those are definitely worthy discussions, people can have varying degrees of opinions about that. But that's not what this budget decision is being based on this year. We are talking about the meat and potatoes of delivering public safety and keeping public safety alive and well in this community. And so let me tell you about the unknown.

So the unknown became very, very clear in no uncertain terms at our Board of County Commissioners meeting yesterday when we had a conversation about Senate Bill one eighty, which has been, just enacted from Tallahassee. It's supposed to be a public safety bill of an emergency management bill. And through the discussion, what our emergency manager shared with us is that we still, in local government, in the entire state of Florida, and likely in the entire country, do not have a firm understanding of what support mechanisms our local communities will have in case of a hurricane or some other disaster. And I had asked Tim if he would be willing to pull together some numbers of what we have spent from our reserves over the years on natural disasters in this community. If you were here in 2004, if you've been were here for Irma, if you were here even just last year, FEMA doesn't run-in and remove stuff.

FEMA doesn't repair stuff. This local government and our employees do it along with contractors, and then we hope to get reimbursed from FEMA, sometimes years, years later. So just for purposes of reflection, because none of us has a crystal ball, Those are the funds that this county spent from reserves for hurricanes for those events. Twenty seventeen Irma over $30,000,000 in today's inflation environment in today's economy, it was 23,000,000 at the time. Adjusted inflation would be 30,000,000.

15,000,000 former dollars for hurricane Ian. Today's adjusted inflation, 16,000,000. Milton Milton was practically a nonevent for this county. Practically. Although I was without power for five days, but that's a whole different conversation. It'd be an it's an $8,000,000 event. Now how do you know? How do any of us know when we are tasked with the responsibility of keeping this community safe and making good decisions for the future that we don't know that we are going to have an active hurricane season or one of those events? And those reserves are not just for a rainy day. They are for an, oh, holy crap day.

And we've seen those days here in this county. And so as a conservative, my own family, my own finances, my own philosophy is we are self sufficient in my family. We have done all the things that we need to do so that I don't have to necessarily rely on the sheriff to get there within three days in case something happens. I've got my supplies. I've got my food. I've got my guns. Right? Because we need to be self sufficient. We should not be relying on government to immediately fulfill those needs for us. Well, guess what?

We are in the position in Seminole County government right now where we do not know that the federal government is going to come in and fulfill these needs for us even on a reimbursement basis. So I wanted to only focus on that because all of the other things I think are, have been talked about and the sheriff, of course, is welcome to talk tonight about his budget and his needs and the other constitutionals that are here, I'm sure we'll give them the opportunity to do that as well. But I think it is so incredibly important that our citizens understand that this is not something we are taking lightly. We have we have kept our budget at a 1% increase for everything we could possibly do because we are not spending frivolously, because we do understand what it's like to raise a family. We're all going to be paying these same taxes.

We are not exempt. So please understand that the decisions that we make are because we care about this community being resilient and self sufficient and not reliant on the federal government regardless of who is in control, regardless of the party, regardless of the administration. These are the facts of the things that happen in local government when the unthinkable happens, and those are the things that we have to plan for. That's our responsibility. Now you can threaten to vote me out of office for taking that responsibility. I'm okay with that because I can sleep at night knowing that we are equipped to take care of our community without having to rely on the federal government. That's what I have to say for tonight.

What else? Sure. Mister Herb.

So I have not been in government for years and years and years and lived through all of this in the in in the past. But what I will tell you is that my view of this universe is that we need to make this community the safest, the most effective, meaning I can get from point a to point b to work, play, be educated, etcetera, reasonably. And I can actually raise a family here with kids that get a great education. I don't have to pay for private schools, etcetera, etcetera. That's the American dream that that I ran to protect.

And we're short five years into this or so. For the first time in sixteen years, we're faced with this raising the millage rate. And as I told you years ago, I kept my day job because I never wanna be threatened with, I'm gonna vote you out of office and have that mean something. I will vote my mind. I will do the right thing. The reality of this so I I'm I am a note taker. I took copious notes. I have names written down to it. There were a lot of misstatements made today. Tim, I really do want you to put the slide back up of the millage rates in the other counties because we heard it over and over and over again.

Ours is the highest, ours is the highest, ours is the highest. And if you only compare the one line, I probably should tell you I run data analytics for health care, so I can make numbers say anything we want them to say, and we all can do that. If you only look across the top line, we look pretty far out of whack outside of Osceola. But if you go down and look, they have other millage rates that they're assessing. Law enforcement is separate. Animal services is separate. Mosquito control is separate. We have all zeros. So you have to look at the bottom, the general fund millage equivalent, and then, hey, look at that. We look pretty good.

Lake's beating us. Lake's beating us. That's not good. We wanna be competitive with the other counties. So that, like, that bugs me that Lake's beating us.

So to commissioner Constantine's point, if we're gonna work over the next two weeks to to rectify this, we can't fix this in two weeks. My comment in the first budget session was our time to vote no was when we were spending the money, not now that we have to pay for the things that we have. So we need to remember that as we go forward, and we need to continue to manage the budget under the property value increases that come in without a millage adjustment so that we can get this potentially back. This county has raised millages and lowered millages in its in its past. So that possibility does exist.

But if you look all the way down to the bottom, we we're not the highest. And so I have 14 other notes here. A lot of them were not accurate. This is one example of it. The the thing that rides around with no driver is a city program. It's not a county program. Kids are moving out. We didn't chart we didn't run a referendum for land preservation. You know what we did? We took it out of the general fund. Yeah. Sit there. We took it out of the general fund. Roughly 5% of the general fund every year that we're putting aside for land preservation. So a lot of the things that you've asked for, we've done.

Make sure that we can get to work. Make sure that the roads aren't congested. Make sure that we bring jobs into the market, make sure that we have economic development so we can work here and play here. We are doing all of that. Do we love the increase? No. Do I want higher taxes? No. Do I understand the need for it? Yes. Do I think the county manager and his team have done an amazing job? Yes. Do I think the constitutionals have done an amazing job? Yes. Do I think we all have more work to do? Yes. And I think we need to do that in collaboration with citizens that are willing to dig in with us and help us do that. So I will be voting yes tonight. I hate that I have to do that. I hate that I have to do that.

But I will do it because I will vote from my heart and my mind what I think is the best possible thing for this community to keep us safe, healthy, happy. We didn't even talk about clean water. We didn't talk about that. So but I will say this, I do reserve the right that when a lot of you guys that come and talk at the three minutes, a lot of you I recognize from my first meeting here that lasted until midnight, and often there are lots of asks, I'm gonna remind you of tonight, and you should remind me of tonight too. And we should hold each other accountable to keeping this budget managed.

Commissioner Gloery. Thank you, mister chairman. This is the time of year that is very sensitive to all of us, and I want to take a different approach, if I may, commissioners. I want to thank and I know some of you hinted about it, some a little more than others. Our staff has done a phenomenal job on so many different levels. And it's not just the county manager and Tim Jeks, it's the people in public works, it's all the directors, it's the people in the rank and file, it's the fire department. Things don't happen in a vacuum here. It takes more than a village. It literally takes an army or an entire county. I also wanna thank the entire constitutional officers, all five of them.

We talk to them in great detail. If you get a chance, please look at the sheriff's presentation. I will tell you, I've seen presentations over the years that is by far the most detailed, the most to say the word detailed doesn't even go far enough. The sheriff did a phenomenal job showing us why he needs the amount of money that he needs to run the sheriff's department. And then I'm also wanna give the sheriff some kudos again because when he told us exactly how much money he needed, we asked him to go back and he actually cut another it was a $900,000, Tim?

Yes.

And so he actually sharpened his pencil again. So, sheriff, thank you much for doing that. And it's not just you as well because it's also your staff that does that. Your entire staff is phenomenal. And we'll work with your staff as well as the other constitutionals. I know I see the proper appraiser here as well as the supervisor of election. All your staffs are phenomenal on so many different levels, and you care about this county in great, great detail. I've seen many of not just our staff, but the constitutional staffs work nights, weekends, and it just goes in great detail. It's not an easy decision if we vote for or against. Please don't look negative on any one of us that vote for.

And if you're for the against the budget, please don't look any of us for us that are against the budget because this is a good budget as a whole. Can there be more work to be done? I'm sure commissioner Konstantin is very passionate about it. He spent about at least ten, fifteen minutes discussing it. I know the other commissioners as well.

And I know our staff, that's one of our topic that we've been discussing on a regular basis almost hourly when we see everybody. I'm sure Tim is tired of seeing all five of us on a regular basis and making those phone calls. I will also tell you that one of our biggest issues, as was talked about, is our unfunded mandates for the state of Florida. And I'll also tell you another thing. One of my biggest issues is we have to keep continue to work with our seven cities.

I'll give you a great example. A number of years ago, we wanted to consolidate and do something with the seven cities. And the one thing we did come up with, and I believe it was in o nine, I think it was, Tim, we talked about mosquito control. So we took over mosquito control over from the seven cities. It was supposed to be a pilot program. Everybody thought it was great because the county was gonna pay for it out of our general fund. And it was a great idea because the county was paying for it, the seven cities weren't. Well,

it's We're still paying for it.

We're still paying for it. Maybe it's not such a great idea. And if you look at the county as a whole, you do a heat map of where all those calls are coming from, it's because there's an increase in development in those seven cities. But yet they don't want that responsibility back right now. I know as we move forward, I'm hoping that we can bring the seven cities to the table to figure out how we can all coexist in the next coming years.

And that's an issue because we hear and, again, our sheriff does a phenomenal job. He sets the rate for the deputies at a certain rate, and then the cities increase their rate. And it's just what comes first, the cities or the counties, and it's just an ever running cycle. I think commissioner Lockhart discussed that a little bit at some point, if not today, in a past meeting. You discussed that. That's a big issue. So we need to bring the seven cities to the table. Will they come to the table? I don't know. We've discussed it.

But even when it comes to transportation, you know, there's a lot of things we can discuss. And I'll also tell you that some of the comments I've heard today, and I know commissioner Her talked about the driverless vehicles, that's not ours. Well, tourism, the tourism tax is paid by the hotel bed tax. That's not property tax.

Mhmm.

Right. The Tourism Development District, the property owners of those hotels and is Guy in the room? Guy, raise your there he is right there. Guy. He was in charge I can't tell you how many months it was, at least seven, eight months, maybe a year, of getting the hotel owners to sign a pledge to tax themselves a dollar 75 per room if it's occupied or not.

That's where that money is coming from. So there's a lot of things that are happening that are not from the general fund. But I'll also tell you, I wanna thank the citizens that are here tonight as well as the ones that are not here tonight. You've been very civil to us, and I wanna thank you for that because in some locations, they're not. And, you know, especially when we see you out in public, thank you for being you know, we may disagree, and I think it's healthy to disagree respectfully.

So I wanna thank you for that. But at the same token, all five of us, as well as all five constitutional officers, as well as the entire staff of everyone, I know this is front and center continuously on so many different levels, that I wanna thank you all for your hard work. I don't wanna be, going on and noise and repeating myself as the chairman didn't want you to repeat yourself. I'm not going to repeat myself. A lot of hard work, and I can tell you, no matter what we decide, there's even more hard work in the next coming years to continue to cut this budget and to do what a wonderful job that people want us to do. Mister Chairman, that's the

end of my comments. Thank you. And I'll try to wrap this up and get to board action. I think I said in the first budget hearing, what is it to be fiscally conservative? Is it to only increase taxes when it's necessary or increase it before it's necessary?

And, again, I think what has not been said here tonight, and I'll go ahead and say it, this county received almost $80,000,000 of federal money during the COVID pandemic. And I think it was commissioner Lockhart and I at the time, when they when our staff brought this to us, the federal government sent us 79 so many millions dollars being fiscally conservative. We said, can we refuse it? Why would you wanna refuse it? Because my grandchildren will be paying for it.

So we we directed staff as as a body to go talk to the feds and let us return it, see if that was a possibility. And sadly, the answer we received was, sure. Send it on back. There's places in Colorado and California and others that would be happy to use it. That $79,000,000 has been offsetting the tax burden for the last four years in this county.

That's been in the general fund. Had that money not been there, this tax increase would have been necessary four years ago before this county manager was ever here. Mhmm. We didn't like it at the time being conservatives, but our feeling was, well, if you're gonna send it to California, then we're gonna end up paying for it. My grandchildren are gonna pay for it anyway. Well, then I guess we might as well use it for our own citizens, and that's exactly what this board did. That's been a huge help. Our staff has been telling us for two or three years that this day was coming. We knew it was coming. And like I said, if you've been at these budget hearings over the last several years, you would have heard mister Jackson, his people talk about that.

So here we are making these tough decisions, and I, for one, who took an oath to make sure that our community remains safe and receives everything from a public service standpoint that's necessary is why I will support this. I will tell you we've had our conversations. When I requested the county manager, ask my fellow commissioners to attend a board retreat in March, which was one of the main and sole purposes was to dig into this budget and get into that. That's not something that happens on a regular basis. And so, I wanna thank each one of my commissioners, for taking the time, and putting the time forth to really dig into this and and try to come up with ideas and and so forth and and make the burden as as minimal as possible on our community.

And and I think you all have done that. So thank you very much. I know there's and staff, I know I've worn staff out. I'm sure every one of these commissioners has worn staff out asking this question, that question, communicating with our constitutional officers and trying to figure out is there anything else there we can cut. And I would tell you, we continue to look.

Know, as commissioner Lockhart mentioned, one of the biggest concerns that I personally have for this community is the FEMA scenario. DC is talking about tax cuts. Tallahassee is talking about tax cuts. Who do we pass it on to? Who do I send the tax when I wanna cut taxes, who do I send that bill to?

I've got nobody to send it to. DC and Tallahassee has pushed those costs down to the local level to the point where we have a governor of Arkansas, which is a sweetheart of the current administration in DC, who's had monumental floods and can't get a penny of FEMA money. We're in the heart of hurricane. We're told it'll come through the state. The state has not been told how it's gonna come from the federal government.

We're in the middle of hurricane season. Those are the kinds of decisions and and things we have to make determinations on to to how and where we go. And I'll tell you how how close we've cut to the point of trying to trim as much as we can that one of our own constitutional officers is actually litigating us because we're not funding it apparently enough, and that'll be sorted out. So I will assure you this county commission has has spent a lot of time. We've heard a lot of comments, and and I and I welcome those comments.

But there has been a lot of things misstated tonight, and I thank my fellow commissioners for for trying to correct that. But you can't do it all in one. It's it's a long process that we've been going through, for months, years, and and being here for a period of time.

So Chairman, I have two more things I I have to say. Sure, please. Okay. So we got a lot of information from you all. I'd like to ask our staff to go through it all and report back to us And so we can understand all this information that's presented to us. I think that's appropriate. And then I also wanna talk about, you know, people a little bit of history. We actually reduced the fire millage. Was that 2013 or 12/10?

I'm I'm not sure.

I think it was '13. Then we increased it, then we reduced it. So we do raise millages up and down. And so, you know, we may be raising the millage rate this year and hopefully we reduce it next year. But we've done that with the fire millage once or twice that I know of. And so just wanted to make sure that was out there as well, mister chairman. Thank But I wanted to make sure that we've instructed staff to look at all the comments that have been made here today and give us a wreck not a reckoning, but information about it. Appreciate it. That's it. I kinda Commissioner Lockhart.

Yeah. Just one more thing. And and I, you know, I I don't think that anyone intentionally stood at the podium and shared misinformation. I do not believe that. I I do think that sometimes folks are very confident.

I think it was Ronald Reagan said, it's not that they're lying, it's just so much that they say, it just isn't so. Sometimes things get misinterpreted, they get spread incorrectly, social media is a gift and a curse at the same time. Our team has absolutely nothing to hide. We will share with you every bit of information, every data bit of data down to the line item of every budget. And there were just some things that were said that if they were true, I would be mad about them too.

And one of the things that I think, you know, there was an implication that, somehow we passed the sales tax and now this is like it was a gotcha. But the reality is sales tax, just so we're super clear, sales tax cannot be used to pay sheriff's deputies. Sales tax cannot be used for that type of operating, which is where so much of and I'm not blaming the sheriff, it's the reality. The sales tax is for infrastructure. It is not for salaries.

So I don't know where that has come from, but I want to make sure that this board never ever stated that if a sales tax was passed that future things would not have to be considered. So I do want to make sure that that's clear as well. Would it be worthy of maybe taking down some of the most commonly stated things and maybe doing a myth versus fact or an FAQ that we can put on our website or so it can be shared on social media because while I don't want to continue to spread misinformation, the lack of correction makes it seem silence is consent. And so if I was someone who was here tonight and I said something that was misstated and no one corrected me, I would assume that that meant it was true. And so I and there's also a danger when you're sitting up here that if you were one of those people that said something and then we corrected it, then you feel like it's this combative, like, us versus you thing, and that's not what it is.

We just wanna make sure everyone has all of the facts. We can have miss we can have disagreements all day long, but facts are important. So I I'd like you to consider that as well if possible if the board's amenable.

Thank you. Commissioner. Right. If there's nothing else, I will look for direction. The first direction I'm looking for is, adoption of 25, 26, 10 millage rates as presented.

Mister chairman, I move the adopt the floor the fiscal year 2526 tentative millage rate as presented. Second.

Motion second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Next, I'm looking for direction on adoption of the 2526 tentative budget as adjusted of $1,215,087,959

Chairman, I'll move motion number two on the budget.

Second. Motion and second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries unanimously. Okay. I want to remind the public that we do have a second and final public hearing, to adopt the millage and the budget. It will be scheduled for Tuesday, 09/23/2025 at 05:30 right here in these chambers.

Before we adjourn, I want to make sure that, again, we thank each and every one of you for showing up tonight. It's very important to us that we hear from the public whether you were in favor or not in favor. As commissioner Lockhart put it, we don't there's adversarial scenario here. If if you need information, ask any of us for it. We'll make sure that you get it, and we'll make sure you get the proper information. And and hopefully, our PIO department will dig into, putting the myth versus truth thing together. So that that'd be wonderful. With that said, anything else for the good of the order? Seeing none, we'll be adjourned. Thank you all very much.