I'd like to call the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners public hearing for September 11, 2025. First public hearing for the physical year 2026 millage and a budget. Introductions to the public hearing on Alachua County physical year 2026. Real quick, Mr. Chair, before I would move approval of the regular agenda. Sure, I'm sorry. That's okay. Okay, move the approval of the agenda. Second. Second. Are there any public comments? Back to the board. Those in favor of the motion, go by the sound of aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Okay. The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners convened this public hearing on the Alachua County physical year 2026 proposed millage rate and tentative budget as required by Florida statute, Chapter 129 and 200, and as advised in the Truth and Millage Trim Notice. If anyone in our audience, if anyone in our audience is here for the purpose of contesting their assessment, a petition for the adjustment with the value adjustment board should have been filed by 5 p.m. Monday, September the 15th, 2025. This information was included in the trim notice, petition forms were available from the property appraiser's office. This evening, we will take a number of actions related to the adoption of the proposed millage rate and budget. The final public hearing on this matter will be held on Tuesday, September the 23rd, 2025 at 5.01 p.m. in this same location, the Alachua County Administration Building, the Jack Durant's Auditorium. I urge you, if you have not already done so, to get a copy of the agenda so you may easily follow the proceedings this evening. Citizens' comments will take place following the overview of the tenant budget by the county manager and the assistant county manager for budget and physical services. The county attorney will now present an overview of the truth and millage legislation followed by the county manager's explanation of the proposed and rollback millage rate. Okay, Mr. Chair, in 1980, the Florida legislature adopted what is known as truth and millage legislation, or TRIM, as it's called. The goal of the legislation was to ensure that taxpayers were advised of the public hearings at which the local taxing authority's budget and millage rates were to be considered and adopted. Each year, the property appraiser completes an assessment of the value of all properties and certifies to each taxing authority the taxable value of the property within its jurisdiction. Each taxing authority then notifies the property appraiser of its proposed millage rate, its rollback rate, the date, time, and place of the public hearing to consider the proposed millage rate, and the tentative budget. Once the property appraiser receives the information, the office sends a notice by first-class mail to every taxpayer on the assessment roll. The notice contains the information from the taxing authorities as to the proposed millage rate and the time and place of the public hearings. The notice sent to taxpayers is called the TRIM notice. The TRIM notice lists what the taxes were for the prior year, what the taxes will be if the proposed changes are made, and what the taxes will be if no budget changes are made. This information is listed for each taxing authority. The notice also lists all voted levies for debt service. The purpose of the TRIM notice is to provide taxpayers with sufficient basic information to enable them to participate in the public hearing process. One of the requirements of the Truth in Millage legislation is to provide information about why proposed millage rates differ from the rollback rate millage rate. The proposed millage for the Board of County Commissioner county-wide levy is 7.600 mils, which is 6.36% greater than the rollback rate of 7.1455 mils. The rollback millage rate is defined as the millage rate which, exclusive of new construction, additions to structures, deletions, and property added due to geographic boundary changes, will provide the same ad valorem tax revenue for each taxing authority as was levied during the prior year. The TRIM process requires that a notice of tax increase be advertised when the current year proposed aggregate millage rate exceeds the calculated aggregate rollback millage rate. The aggregate rollback millage rate is calculated by dividing the prior estimated property tax revenues by the current year taxable property value multiplied by 1,000. The current year taxable value does not include new construction and tax increment or CRA values. For the 2025 tax year, the proposed aggregate millage rate is 9.0552, which is 6.26% greater than the aggregate rollback rate millage of 8.5218 mils, resulting in advertising a notice of tax increase. The current year fiscal year 25 property tax revenue for all taxing units, excluding voted millage, is $212,636,204. The fiscal year 26 tenant of budget property tax revenue of $229,156,150, is $16,519,946 greater than fiscal year 25. The increase in property tax revenue is necessary to fund the appropriations to operate the general, county, and MSTU for law enforcement taxing units. The total county tenant of budget for fiscal year 2026 is $946,936,554, which is a net increase of $2,610,774, compared to the county manager's proposed budget of $944,325,780. The details of the changes are reflected in the fiscal year 2026 tenant of budget included in your agenda packet. Mr. Chair, this concludes my comments on the changes that were made to the tenant of budget. I would be happy to answer any questions about the budget at this time. Okay. I would now like to invite the citizens to comment on the fiscal year 2026 proposed military and tentative budget. Please come forward to either podium if you wish to address the board. We do request each speaker try to limit his or her comments to three minutes. The hearing will continue until everyone who wishes to address the commission has had an opportunity to speak. At this time, we would take any citizen comments. James Jim Carrington. Been here in Alachua County a long time. Thank you for what you do. That's the first thing because it is difficult. I've compared it to a juggling act. You have three balls in the air, four balls in the air, five balls in the air, six balls in the air. You can't tell. I've been to my city, City of Alachua hearing. I've been to the library hearing. I've been to the school board hearing. And what I've come up with, and I speak to you as the leaders of our community, that the important, I think the most important thing I'm going to save to the last minute. But I want to say a couple of things just to give us perspective. The fire assessment, $23 million budget, our revenue expected. We could get 23 new super fire trucks, they tell me. Of course, we wouldn't be able to pay anybody and have a fire department, but we could get 23 new fire trucks. So things are difficult. Valorum taxes and ad valorem taxes and non-ad valorem taxes. Stormwater, it's a beautiful way you phrased it. And the property appraiser and whoever else was involved, tax collector and this, wonderful the way it's done. However, let it be known, the people on the low side of the road will flood, and the people on the high side will not. And flood insurance, is there some correlation between stormwater runoff and flood insurance? My insurance rates go up every year. You know that. Every year it's more. Even though my market value of the, that the tax assessor sent showed an 8% reduction. I don't have a lot of time, so I will say one last comment. It's interesting how the turn back notice, the rates always go back if you maintain the same budget. I wonder if they would go back to a zero millage rate if we continued to hold the same budget. All of that being said, the most important thing is, in all this juggling that you'll do, is for me to tell you, as leaders, save money. Once I think you do a good job with the budget, the staff do a great job. Save money and have your constitutional officers, have those departments compete to save money. Especially the sheriff, let's give him a hard time. Sheriff spends all our money. And all of the sheriff's money is spent on the jail. So, that being said, thank you for what you do. But please, money management is a difficult thing, and it's a real juggling act. Thank you. Thank you. Any further citizen comments to the budget? Continuing with what our presenter just said, hello. My name's Jackie Casanova, and I know you all go way back in Gainesville. I go back since I was 18 years old and came here and thought this was a charming little college town with lovely nature. And I fell in love with it and wanted to stay here. One of the first degrees I got from the university was in journalism, because I thought it would be easy. You didn't have to do math or science, and I just wanted to do karate. But I'm going to use my reporting skills here tonight, because I've been drawing on them to do a little research for this and try to get some perspective on an issue. So, in terms of raising property taxes, whether they're for property or some other thing, and whether you call it millage rates or ad valorem, this or that, I don't know what all those fees mean. I don't think most people do. I just know, and I get that set of fat envelopes, and it says this is not a bill. I can count on the fact that every single time they come, they're saying you've got to pay more. We're proposing you pay more. And if you don't, this is mind-blowing, but if you don't, then they want the deed to your property after two years of not paying taxes. It doesn't matter if you paid off your mortgage, if you spent decades in the community trying to be a good mom and reporter and baker, veterinarian, whatever it is, it doesn't much matter. Two years go by, and you miss those property taxes, and you're SOL. And it starts to turn into a really ugly road really fast, even for the most prepared. So here tonight I'm speaking for myself now as the 18-year-old who is now retired and living on Social Security, which is $13,000 a year. My proposed new property taxes are over $5,000 a year, and that gives me $8,000 a year to live on, five months basically of no spending to meet these property taxes. When I was working 50 hours a week, that wasn't a big deal, and these increases went up, and I didn't have time to come to these meetings. But the last one I came to was about increases, because I knew at some point I'd be standing here like this, retired on a fixed income and trying to make that work. So for years now in preparation, I've been cutting expenses. You cut things like health insurance and homeowners insurance and going out to eat and buying new clothes, doctors, dentists, things that aren't necessities, because there's that big-ass property tax bill that's going to come, and you don't want to lose your life. For me, that property happens to be a little piece of North Gainesville that's really a beautiful wildlife corridor. I think, Mr. Chestnut, it might be your district. And the first meeting I came to is about trying to preserve our green space corridors for wildlife so they could thrive and breed. And I put my money and my work and my efforts where my passion was and on this property that I've got now and try to do a little self-sufficient farming. That's the goal. But it's wildlife corridor for panthers, coyotes, hogs, turkey, deer, otters in Rocky Creek. It's just wonderful, and I feel like I've been a steward of it for 30 years and would like to keep that up and would like the legacy of sharing this family plot with my children and grandchildren. But that's getting to be increasingly difficult, and what I found doing a little research for this meeting today was that I'm not alone in that. According to our own property appraiser's office, there are over 1,600 family heir properties like mine, you know, paid for. I hope to leave to my heirs, that in this county, nearly a quarter of those are delinquent in their property taxes. So however noble you think your spending endeavors are and however valid any increases are, if they make people lose their property, the fundamental place where they can at least sleep in a tent if their house is destroyed or piss on the earth if they've got no place else to go, if you take that away, you've taken their life away. And that's happening. A quarter of the homeowners and property owners in our community being delinquent in their property taxes, and yet you sit here and you want to raise them yet again, and there's been no effort to cut spending. So part of my research today was reading the city manager's responses to the state DOGE request for audits. And our city gave information for 2023 and 2024, and the city manager explained how there was $15 million less from GRU, and so we're moving into property taxes to make up that income. And it was justified last year that these property taxes could go up because we had growth. Construction went up by 29%, and it was proposed that home values would go up. Well, it's 2025, and our city has not responded as far as today's... I've been giving you some latitude, but please try to conclude because we asked for three minutes. I will conclude. Thank you for your time. Okay. And being here in person, you know, that's real different than a computer. So what I'm asking today is that you stop any increases in funding until our DOGE audit of this year is complete. I would like each of you in your own districts to be able to tell your constituents you see and recognize the ones that are having difficulty paying their property taxes, and you figure out who they are. Are they, you know, members of the community? You want to pull that thread and discard them, and then what do we have left? So I feel like you've been milking the cow that's been giving you cream, and now you killed it and went for the meat, and it's dead. And our city's dead. Our restaurants are dying. Our small businesses are closing down. People are not paying bills. So I think it takes a lot of nerve to sit up here and raise taxes in those circumstances. And I hope for at least seniors on Social Security, you might consider that you won't do across-the-board raises, but maybe stopping them and even decreasing or altogether diminishing, getting rid of taxes, property taxes for seniors on Social Security. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional public comments to the budget, intended or budget? I just want to say my name is Beatrice. I don't own this house that I'm here on behalf of my parents. Their names, do you want their names? Oh, Marita and Servaro Morales. So we're new to Florida. We just last year moved here from Pennsylvania, and my parents wanted to come to a warmer place, so they sold their house in Pennsylvania and made enough money to buy a house here, paid in full. However, they're just in a fixed income, Social Security, and when we got this tax bill, it's almost like we made the biggest mistake in life to move down here. So at 86 years old, they have a tax bill for $7,200. And I just, it's sad and it saddens me because we move here for a purpose and don't know that we're going to be able to stay in the long run if we're not able to meet this every year, or they're not able to meet this every year. So it's just a comment that I want to say. I don't understand, like, all the taxes here that involve, and I just, it was my understanding that when we move here, we were going to pay higher taxes, and I had kind of estimated that it would be maybe like $3,500, and this is like double that amount, considering what they were paying in Pennsylvania, which was around $1,800 for the same space in home that they have now. So it was just a comment that I just wanted to make. Thank you. Ma'am, I just want to iterate. If you just moved here, there may be other exemptions that you'll qualify for in subsequent years, like the homestead exemption, Save Our Homes, and the senior exemptions are just a heads-up about those. Yes, please. My name is Joe Harbin. I've been here since 1991. But I moved in 2020, and my property taxes tripled because, as you know, I'm a former real estate agent, and as you know, the prices of homes have been going up. I know you're in real estate, not in the last year or so, but five years ago I moved, and yet every year my property taxes continue to go up. I keep waiting for them to go down to catch up to the increased prices of homes. That must put a lot more money into your budget, the simple market out there. So that's one thing. The other question, I am a layperson. I don't understand millage rates very much. Why are they going up? Can somebody please help me with that? I'm just, all the information I have is right here, and I'm seeing that the millage rate went up quite a bit. But would you mind, for the record, just helping me out to understand that? That's really all I have to say. I would like to understand millage rates and why they're going up at a time when the market, for housing anyway, is so high. That must have some effect on your budget. Thank you. Thank you. Any further citizen comments? After citizen comments. Yeah, yeah. Hello. I'm Estefania Bamias. I'm very young, as you all can see. I'm a new homeowner, but I've been in Florida since I was 15 years old. I'm 27. I'm a young mom, and I work for the state. I don't have a small job. I have an actually very high-pressure job, and I'm still struggling to make payments. I live in a dual-income household. I have two young children, and the increase of property taxes actually has me a little concerned because it could mean that for me, and I do already have a lot of the exceptions I could qualify for when it comes to taxes, it could mean that my family may be missing some needs. Maybe I'm not able to buy my kids' shoes every single time, or I'm not going to be able to apply for my citizenship next year because my residency will expire. I'm a resident. I'm not a citizen, and to apply for a citizenship, it costs like $600 of the back. I'm hoping for some tax returns to help with that, but increasing taxes every year, I understand it might be necessary, but in times like today, right now, we might have to look at it in a different way, especially when it comes to law enforcement budgets. I am very pro-nature, very anti-crime, and very anti-fight. I work for social services, so I know that we are already in need of money when it comes to those areas, and I would like to see an increase in the areas where we're helping the community and not just more the other side. I would like to see an increase in budgeting when it comes to our development in nature and not our structures because as of right now, a lot of us might not be able to afford it in times of today. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, before we move on, can we get staff just to comment about the taxes, please? Sure. I'm going to close the... Oh, yes. Okay, at this time, I now close the public comment section of this public hearing. Okay. Yes. Mr. Chair, the budget document before you, the fiscal year 2026 budget, includes the changes that were described earlier. Wait, wait, wait. Tommy, sorry. Before we move on, can you please answer the question around millage? I'm about to. Oh, okay. It started looking like you were going back into the... I am, but I'm going to do it at the end. That's a little segment. Okay. I understood the question. So any additional adjustments to the budget can be made. The millage rates this year, again, we're not going to the rollback rate. We are reducing our millage for the ninth year in a row. So it appears statewide, the issues are the values of homes are going up so rapidly. And even with Save Our Homes, first of all, if you don't have Homestead exemption and Save Our Homes, you're probably going up 10% in taxable assessed value this year. Across the board. See it everywhere. See it on my tax bill, on those homes that I don't get to Homestead. But regardless of whether it's... You only get Homestead for your personal home. So it doesn't matter if you have family in other homes that you're taking care of. They don't get the protection. One of the heirs' property issues that is now starting to realize is that as people pass away and they transition that home to their loved ones, the bar is reset. You still lose all of that Save Your Homes protection. And then your tax bill skyrockets. As I well know from my mom passing away last year. It's hard, that tax bill. So what we're seeing is the taxable values are increasing quite rapidly. And if you don't go to the rollback rate, there's an increased millage. So we also have in this county, we... Value, not an increase in millage. Sorry, increase in value. Well, you're seeing millages across the county in some locations. The city has a proposed increase in millage, the city millage. I understand the Children's Trust just adopted a rollback rate. No, the library board. I mean, the library board. I'm sorry. Yep. The Children's Trust has a millage as well as the school board millage, which I believe did not go down. I haven't looked at lots of county school board millage. So all of those millages, also the assessments that we now levy, we have now four assessments. There is no homestead exemption or Save Our Homes Protection on assessments. Those assessments go to first dollar of the value. So... We do have hardship, though. We do have some hardship... Hardships. ...that people can apply for for their assessments. Right. We can. A certain amount of it. So that's what's driving the tax bills versus what we... We, on our expenditure side, our employees also have to live in this age of inflation. What's driving expenses has been inflation for the last three to four years. So since 2021, we have seen double-digit inflation all the way into this year. We have also... As a result of that, we also have a $15 an hour statewide minimum wage that has been being implemented at $1 a year. And I believe we're at... We're at $18.50, but I believe the state is at $14, $14 an hour now at their minimum wage. So those are driving costs up and keeping inflation moving forward. So all of that contributes to what you're seeing today as increased budget demand, increased need to budget to keep up with the services, as well as supplies and goods. The tariffs, we understand, are driving costs up. We've seen construction costs increasing as this market has been a boom. As housing prices have gone up, a lot of that has to do with materials are going in those houses. So the housing price has been driven by not only labor, but also materials. And so we're seeing those costs as well as what we're seeing in our own construction and what we've been talking about. So all of that goes into play of why expenditures have been going up at a rapid pace. It mostly has to do with the cost of inflation. So those are the things driving things up faster. And if you'll remember, I will update our slide presentation that I presented two years ago. We're at over 50% of our property values are not even on the rolls to be able to be taxed because the University of Florida is exempt from property taxes. So any services provided around that area through those roads in response to public safety from the county's budget or the city's budget are not funded by taxes or funded by everybody else's taxes, not state support. So we've talked about payment in lieu of taxes, things that we would like to see addressed at the state level to help us support the demands of services at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College and other campuses that are exempt from property taxes. So that's picked up by the other property owners. Does that help? Okay. Okay. I still think maybe if you could explain what a millage is. So I did when I read it, but it was a lot of numbers. Yeah, yeah. So the millage is basically your value. The millage is 1,000th. One mill is 1,000th of your value. So 10 mills, that's 1% of your property value. So a millage is basically a percentage of your property, your taxable value that you pay taxes on. And we are at 7.6 mills. So that's roughly 0.76% of your house value, of your taxable value. Which we reduced. Which we reduced this year. Yeah. Can I say, Mr. Chair? I just, for the record, I just want to say, I think, I mean, I think Tommy just laid out why our budget is what it is with inflation and costs and salaries and trying to offer services, all the services that, you know, are demanded of us, both from a public safety perspective, infrastructure perspective, and a natural resources perspective. I appreciate what the young lady said about our natural resources and about making investments in that. But I will say that we've really taken it seriously and our manager has taken it seriously that we're in difficult times. And that's why we've lowered our millage rate every year. We just haven't lowered it all the way back to the rollback rate because we're also facing the same inflationary issues that you're facing. So we're trying to cut our taxes the best that we can while still maintaining the level of service that you all expect from us. And, but we do understand that it's difficult. And so we do have some hardship exemptions. So if any of you are on fixed income and you can potentially qualify for those hardships exemptions, then I would definitely encourage you to chat with our staff about those opportunities. And I don't know if they go through the property appraiser or our staff for those applications through community support services, but. So those go through the property appraiser and then the hardships we have, I would have to look into the assessment of who filed. I think they file directly. Patrick, they file solid waste with you with the solid waste for the hardship social services through CS community support services, Claudia Tech's office. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Chair, may I ask a question? Tom, do those hardships then have to be reapplied for every year? Do you know? Yes, ma'am. Every year so. Okay. It's not ongoing. So Mr. Chair, any additional adjustments to the budget can be made by motion of the commissioners at this time. None. Florida statute requires the name of the taxing authority, the millage rate to be levied, the rollback rate, and the percentage change over rollback rate be publicly announced. Accordingly, the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners has determined that a proposed millage rate of 7.600 mils is necessary to fund the tentative general fund general county, excuse me, general county budget. The proposed millage rate represents an increase of 6.36% over the rollback rate of 7.1455 mils. Okay. Is there a motion? So Mr. Chair, I would move adoption of Resolution 2025-050 establishing fiscal year 2026 proposed general county millage rate. I second. Got a motion and a second. Are there any citizen comments to the motion? We've already had the public hearing. Okay. All right. Yeah, I asked that question earlier. Okay. Those in favor of the motion? Yes. I move adoption of Resolution. Hold on. Oh, we got a vote on that one. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Sorry. I'm jumping ahead. That's all right. Those in favor of the motion vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed same sign. Motion carries. All right. Commissioner Alfred. I move adoption of Resolution 2025-051 adopting changed revenue estimates and the fiscal year 2026 tentative general county budget. Second. Got a motion and a second. Those in favor of the motion vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Florida statute required the name of the taxing authority of the millage rate to be levied, the rollback rate and the percentage change over the rollback rate be publicly announced. Accordingly, the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners has determined that a proposed millage rate of 3.5678 mills for the municipal service taxing unit law enforcement is required to fund the tentative municipal service taxing unit law enforcement budget. The tentative millage rate represents an increase of 6.66% over the rollback rate of 3.3450 mills. Is there a motion? Those in favor of the motion vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Move adoption of resolution 2025-053 adopting the change revenue estimates in the fiscal year 2610 of municipal service taxing unit law enforcement budget. Okay. Is there a second? Got a motion and a second. Those in favor of the motion will by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed same sign motion carried. This concludes the tentative budget hearing. The remainder of the second and final public hearing will be held Tuesday September the 23rd 2025 at 5.01pm here at the Alachua County Administration Building the Jacks Durrance Auditorium 12 Southeast 1st Street 2nd floor. That's it. So we move back to our agenda which has general public comment. No, no. We got to do the Sugarfoot. Okay. I'm Sugarfoot. Okay. I'm moving to that. We're right here. Yeah. Sorry, y'all. I'm sorry. I move we adopt the Sugarfoot Oaks and Cedar Ridge Special Assessment District final non-advalor assessment rates. Second. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion to the motion? Those in favor of the motion will by the sign of aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed same time. Motion carries. Okay. Now we go to Stormwater. Hold on. I think she's got to present it. No, you can go ahead. Oh, okay. Go ahead. I move adoption of the Stormwater Final Assessment Resolution for Fiscal Year 2025-26 and authorize the Chair to certify the Stormwater non-advalor assessment roll to the tax collector. Got a motion and a second. Mr. Chair I believe these are assessments that are separate from the budget hearing, so I think you still would request public comment. Okay, sure. Okay. All right. At this point, are there any public comments? To the Stormwater or something? To the Stormwater. Yes, ma'am, please. There's something here that seems to be missed in the growth and all these expenses and costs of construction and things that they're talking about. There is the assumption that property values are increasing. It's not my experience. If any of you have any real estate you're trying to sell in this town, you might know it's sitting there and property values are going down. I know people who have moved from this city to go to a lower tax environment and thought they could sell their home in a couple months and now more than a year later it's sitting there. I have a piece of pristine seven acres, part of that wildlife corridor in North Gainesville that I put on the market to try to make money for paying taxes. It was something I hoped I'd never have to do and thought maybe decades now into my old age I'd have to do it. And the thing is there is no property value no matter what you call it unless you can sell it. And that gem of a piece of property full of game and wildlife secluded lovely home site is sitting there without anybody calling the major realtor it's listed with. There's a reason for that. Gainesville still got some beautiful places but Florida has a reputation for high homeowners insurance and this city has a reputation for high taxes. So it's making it unaffordable and undesirable and it's a fallacy that these home prices and values are increasing. We've got these ugly subdivisions yes construction did go up but it's a bunch of cookie cutter ugly houses crowded there's no natural beauty no wildlife considered there and nobody's buying them and they're competing with the Gainesville homeowners that are trying to sell property so I'd like you to consider that here our city has a big picture and gutting out the taxpayers to keep spending without cutting any spending makes for a dead city and it's really a sad tragedy I hope we can prevent that thank you thank you if I could comment I hope you take those messages to the city of Gainesville and not just to the county further citizen comment get back to the board those in favor of the motion vote by the sign of aye aye those opposed same side motion carries a fire assessment fire assessment I move that we adopt the fire service final assessment rate resolution a physical year 2025-2026 and authorize the county manager to certify the non-advalorem assessment role to the tax collector second okay are there any public comments motion is on the floor back to the board those in favor of the motion vote by the sign of aye aye those opposed same side motion carries now at this time we'll have general public comments any general public comments I might want to ask if anyone's here for Sugarfoot because we missed that one I know we adopted it but is there anyone here from Sugarfoot you are you are no comments no comments thanks for being here Mr. Chair I do I do I just want to tell you all how much I really appreciate you all maintaining this year to year the way you're doing I think it's a really great model and people ought to know what it is that you're doing so maybe they can replicate it because you're getting what your needs are being met by the people who actually have the need and I think it's remarkable that you all are able to do that and maintain it year to year so thank you thank you any further general public comments yes sir I hear about the chip seal on Quail Street I think I missed it didn't do that tonight oh okay but you can comment I just wanted to say thank you honestly it isn't the most perfect job but it completely cured the problem and you helped nine citizens improve their quality of life and I know it's a lot of work but thank you yeah I want to thank you because it took nine citizens to actually get that done I've got a similar situation in my neighborhood of 28 citizens and I don't know if I'm going to be able to get it done and so you know kudos to you guys and to our public works department it was it was a little bit of a thing so thanks for coming down there's a lot of things yeah thank you I really appreciate it thank you yeah I guess I just wanted to make the comment to my colleagues and to Tommy well one a lot of workers in this budget and I think that we spend months and months and months talking about this budget and no one shows up at the meetings and then on the day that we're adopting the budget we get people showing up and it's always interesting to me that you know during the deliberations and the conversations about the budget we don't have a lot of public engagement and so I just want to encourage those people that are here to plug into our budget development process and to maybe ask that at these hearings maybe we could do a very short presentation that Tommy's done in the past that kind of covers our millage compared to other millages and I think that this script while I know it's got all the statutory requirements and it does not have our like what it is in comparison to ours like that it's going down it only has it in comparison to the rollback rate and I think that that would also be helpful so that people know that while it isn't going all the way back to the rollback rate we are endeavoring to cut taxes to the best of our ability so I just wanted to encourage us to have maybe a little bit more of a presentation at these just to go over those three or four slides that Tommy has that show kind of where we are in comparison to the state and where our millage is and all of that that would be great so I think a lot of people come here to learn that information and then they get this really complicated script and nothing much more and I think it would be helpful yeah this would have been a good night for me to do my doge speech I guess but also I want to mention that we did discuss the rollback rate and we had a we had a long discussion about that and there's a lot of uncertainty ahead and I hope that we can do the rollback rate next year and I hope that we can continue to reduce it like we have for the last nine years well and I'll just say to the young woman's point that's going to take a real effort by the sheriff's office to also want to go to the rollback rate because over half our budget goes to the sheriff's office and he's a separately elected official that has a whole entire budget that he creates by himself but we're mandated to provide the funding to that budget and we don't really get a whole lot of say in what that budget looks like luckily we have a sheriff that was willing to work with us and negotiate with us on salary increases that he wanted to do versus what we could afford otherwise our taxes would have been going up instead of going down because they wanted to do what a temperament yeah yeah I mean our military would have been going up not down so but I do think it's going to take a community-wide effort if we're going to try to continue to keep pushing on these reductions especially given to your point the uncertainty of our economy in the coming years but I appreciate everyone coming out and I appreciate and I hear you I want you to know your comments don't go unheard I hear you loud and clear thank you any further citizen comments okay are there any county attorney not today mr. chair are there any county manager not today mr. chair okay are there any commissioners comments commissioner Alfred I wanted to share something that a lot of people might not be aware of if you go to our county's website you can see our budget in detail you can see all of our past budgets in detail you can see every check that we write every bill that we pay we have probably you could also read all of our emails like that right after we send them this county is incredibly transparent in all of our financial processes and in all of our processes in general and I encourage you if you have questions about how your tax dollars are being spent to dig into that and you know as commissioner Prizia said if you want to get involved in how our budgeting process is taking place we start this in what may well yeah well that's true that's what that's when most starts it most starts in october 1st but we start coming to meetings like you know at the end of spring beginning of summer and we and we we spend a lot of time going through every department and talking about you know what our goals are in that department and you know and where we can do better on things and so please if you can dig into those documents and and learn a little more about how the county works that also encourage you if you're interested the county has a class every spring called the citizens academy and the citizens academy is a an introduction to all the all the county all the county departments and you get to travel around and visit the jail and visit the sheriff's department and you know and and understand a little bit more about how our budget system works and also teaches you how to get involved in our county as a citizen and and what what you can do to to make the positive change that you would like to see in your community so I would really encourage you all to think about doing those things and I want to say I really appreciate you all coming to this meeting and sharing your feelings I know that's not easy it's not easy to get up and say I'm having a tough time doing this I know I've been there and it is you know I was a single normal four kids I I understand I truly do so please know that we do hear you and this just you know we we just need your help earlier on in the in the process so thank you my only comment mr. chair is I quite like Jackie's suggestion that if we have 1600 heirs properties and 25% of them are delinquent that we kind of look into that let's um that's 400 people if that's if that is in fact true because that is a manageable by 361 people so that's a manageable bite of folks that we could reach out to and and explore asking that they apply for the hardships and really try to get an understanding of that group of citizens you know lots of folks are not here tonight obviously and they don't need that help but for those folks that maybe don't even know what to do it would be good if our community support staff would plug into that thank you I would just encourage them to connect with the property appraiser on the heirs property workshops that we're already doing and the heirs clinic work that we're doing yeah you have anything commission I do I very quickly I I I have the same issues that that with my tax bill when I see that I choked to my concern is that right now we have big projects that we're working on I don't know that there anything bigger than what we're working on now except maybe the animal shelter so I'm wondering if next year that we won't have I don't know you guys can let me know we've got big projects out there you know with with the courthouse and and this is what I'm saying that next year we will be in a better position to be a little bit more conservative perhaps you know well this is this is what I'm saying but but we don't know what the economy is holds for us we don't we're trying to be conservative at this point in anticipation that it could be a rocky road financially and so that's why we were holding the line this year but was not having the big projects coming forward like we've had I mean we got a lot and that we've recovered from or recovering from next year we'll finish up a bunch and what I would like to if this this group is available the legislature's right now is working on tax reforms if we could tap into that by looking at our own tax structures here what we're doing in terms of multiple properties like Tommy and I had a discussion about this this afternoon multiple properties that are owned by people that that the homestead exemption is it what 25,000 that has not changed even though the price of properties are going up you know if we can look at this and try to understand from our team what is they're seeing locally that we might have an impact on and then grab up our legislators and feed that information to them about what we would like to see done I'd like to have a workshop is what I'm saying what Tommy spoke about at the last meeting when we were when he was sitting right there talking about the strategic plan I mean we're looking at zero-based budgeting next cycle that's exactly your point which is if we had no budget it's not a continuation budget how do we build it from the ground up and so so I think I think that's going to exactly happen the way you're asking well if we could talk about it and come up with something because we have the University of Florida and Santa Fe College which most communities don't have that impact on their community mr. chair you know better than anybody I don't know you know what impact that we could have on our legislature but maybe we could at least feed information needs concerns to our folks you know after we've had a discussion with our people here as to what our tax assessors yes a workshop so we can understand exactly what changes we could make that would impact our citizens you know what what are we really capable of doing what are we able to do what are we legally able to do and then feed that information to our our lobbyists our legislators to to let them know you know what the needs of our community are because I know they're discussing it now I know that representative Henson is eager to get information to carry in and so whatever we ideas or thoughts we can give to her to carry forward to Tallahassee that might help us locally you know we need to do that because I'm this is not my this is not my area this is not my strength and but my strength is that I own four properties in here and I can only claim homestead exemption on one even though and that's only at 25 you know so I don't know if there was some way that we can be creative and say we put them all together and then you know come up with a plan or a price or that we kept seniors at 70 that it never grows from at age 70 for seniors that it never I'm just saying if there was something that we could do to give ideas to our people to take to Tallahassee at least we would be being proactive and addressing the needs of our people and me because I'm a senior right all right thank you Mr. Chair can we if I don't know if we need to just give that to Latoya as a topics because Tommy's ready to go whenever we call it he said he's ready to present okay okay well I just want to say you know out of my years on the county commission when I came into the county commission we was close to the 10 mil cap and over that period of time we have reduced that each year since I've been here and I'd have to give credit to our staff because at one point when I came aboard there were layoffs there were things that we could not afford to do we couldn't even consider a new courthouse or anything like that they had to go and do a local referendum to build a courthouse and so each person in the community had to pay extra money on a sales tax to pay for the courthouse or the criminal courthouse we have right now and so now we're doing a required it right right because they needed a new facility and so oh so we've done those things but we didn't have the money to do that then now we hired I would say a good budget staff and that staff has been very prudent in terms of our spending they've been watching our spending everything and trying to keep us to live within our means and we have been doing that but it's it's difficult when you have other entities also are going to raise their property taxes so it makes it we're trying to do the best we can to reduce ours but others are still raising theirs and so you see that on your tax bill and I'm sorry that that happens that way but that's the way it happens and I think that we're doing our best I feel you I mean when when I see my tax bill I mean I'm like whoa it's expensive and you know it's it's hardship and then for a lot of folks who I know are senior citizens who can't really do that and they're on a fixed income and all of that stuff and like you say you see a lot of senior citizens in this community and I remember when I used to go with the meals on wheels and going to seniors homes and that was their only meal of the day that broke my heart I just have to tell you that broke my heart but they're saving their money to go to the doctor to get their medications and all of that stuff so that really breaks my heart and I would like to see people stay in their homes I really really do but that's more of a legislative issue and I would just advise you to contact your state representative and your senator and tell them your feelings like you did today to us and I think that that go a long ways to be honest with you because we can't change the state statutes we can only live by them so that that's my thing last night at the library governing board meeting which three of the six members are the county commissioners Mary Helen Commissioner Alfred and myself along with Dr. McNeely and two city commissioners Commissioner Chesson and Commissioner Willis took the recommendation of our library director Shani Livingston and recognizing that you know the city's raising their rate other folks around the county are are they're either keeping it the same or maybe not reducing it enough did did recommend and we adopted at the tent of hearing the rollback rate for the library governing board so that that's moving from one mill to point nine three seven six mills so that means that the amount the bottom line number on the trim notice that you received is actually going to be less so it will be less than what was published because we published one it's not a huge amount but every little bit helps and I think I appreciate my colleagues and I appreciate the library director for recognizing what's happening around the whole county it's a county-wide library district and making that that that recommendation to us last night so I just want to mention that for those of you that are here tonight that you'll see that and Jim thanks for being here again I know you were there and we heard your comments loud and clear and Shani had heard them heard them or or had know they were coming before before they came and so I was really happy to see that so thank you mr. chair okay if there's no further business before us we adjourn