I'd like to reconvene the Board of County Commissioners' meeting. Mr. Clerk. Move approval of public hearing one through six, seven. Just kidding. Public comment? Let's go. No public comment. Just kidding, just kidding. Chair, the first item is the fiscal year 2026 budget. Okay. I'm going to help you. Oh, she's going to help us. I'm going to help you today. So tonight we're presenting the proposed millage and assessment rates. For the upcoming fiscal year, as required by Florida statute. This presentation is a key step in the county's annual budget process. And ensures transparency in how property taxes and assessments are determined and allocated. The Board will continue to hold special budget meetings throughout August. Leading up to two public hearings scheduled for Thursday, September 11th. It being the fact that the school board is meeting on Tuesday, September 9th. So we had to change that meeting date. And Tuesday, September 23rd. So the first is the FY26 budget public hearing set proposed millage rates for general county and municipal service taxing unit law enforcement. As an update from the county manager's recommended budget, the July 1 taxable value for general county is $25,306,534,348. The proposed millage rate of 7.600 mills will generate $182,713,179. MSTU law enforcement valuation is $10,321,903,874. The same millage rate of 3.5678 mills will generate $34,985,165. The county millage rate of 7.6 mills represents a 6.16% increase over the rollback rate of 7.1455 mills. The rollback rate is the rate that would generate the same revenue as last year, excluding new construction. The proposed MSTU law enforcement millage rate of 3.5678 mills reflects a 6.45% increase over the rollback rate of 3.3450 mills. The aggregate proposed millage rate for FY26 is 9.0552 mills, compared to the aggregate rollback rate of 8.5218 mills, reflecting an overall increase of 6.26%. The aggregate millage includes all ad valorem taxes levied by the county. Mr. Chair, staff recommends the proposed county millage rate of 7.600 mills, representing a 6.16% increase over the rollback rate of 7.1455 mills, and the MSTU law enforcement millage rate of 3.5678 mills reflects a 6.45% increase over the rollback rate of 3.3450 mills. Open that up. Okay. Need a motion? Move approval of the millage rate used to establish the... This is for the general fund and the MSTU law enforcement budget. Okay. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion to the motion? Are there any citizen comments to the motion? Crowd rushes to the podium. Back to the board. Those in favor of the motion, vote by the sign of an aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. I'm always surprised the public doesn't show up to the... Well, this part... No, this part, they're not. But the other ones... But the other ones... Yeah, they will. But still, this is the millage rate. Yeah, but in September, you're seeing... Yeah, I know. I know. Mr. Chair, the second is the FY26 fire services initial assessment resolution and authorization to properly notice the public hearing. This is the initial assessment resolution authorizing a public hearing setting the rates for fire assessment for fiscal year 25-26 and directing proper notice of the hearing, including the notice of proposed taxes trim. This rate is recommending Tier 1 to be $132.47 per parcel and Tier 2 to be $7.28 per EBU. Mr. Chair, staff recommends adopting a resolution of the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, relating to the delivery and funding of fire protection services and facilities within the Alachua County Municipal Service Benefit Unit for fire protection services, restating and renewing Resolution 2017-70 regarding the fire protection assessment, directing the county manager or her designee as assessment coordinator to prepare a preliminary assessment role, establishing a public hearing to consider imposition of the proposed special assessments, directing the provision of notice and connection therewith, and providing an effective date, setting Tier 1 rate of $132.47 per tax parcel, and Tier 2 based upon the maximum of $7.28 per equivalent benefit unit. I have a question. Okay. Will I have Commissioner Prizia? Oh, okay. Commissioner... I just was wondering if that was a typo then on the agenda or if I have an old copy, because it says per $132.47 per the EBU and not parcel unit. Per tax parcel. Yeah. Okay. That's all I had. Commissioner Cornell. So, there's no change in what it's going to generate. So, I've heard people, some people say it's an increase and other people say it's not an increase. Is it considered an increase, even though it's not generating any more money? Because we're raising the base rate, but lowering the Tier 2. It is an increase in the rate. It's an increase for all property owners, because the Tier 1 rate is paid by every single property. So, it's considered an increase, even though it's not generating any more money. Correct in Tier 1. Whether or not the person will actually see an increase depends on the value of the home, because Tier 2 is going down, and so, to the extent you're doing this. So, at some point, some may pay less, some may pay more, some may pay roughly the same. My question is, if we don't do the rollback rate, we advertise it as a tax increase. Correct. Yes. Do we advertise this as an assessment increase? Yes. We do? Because we're increasing the Tier 1 rate. Okay. We have staff recommendation. Okay. I guess I just wanted to highlight that. We have the chart. I just want to put it out there. I would not. I don't. I know that we had to do this by some kind of requirement. We had to do a study. There's only one way we can do this. I understand why we got to where we got. But I really just have to voice, once again, I think this is a really regressive way to do this. We're raising the base rate that everybody pays. That means that the smallest parcels and the lowest income folks that have the smallest properties often are paying more, really, when it comes down to, you know, they'll have an increase, and others will get a decrease in their overall expenses. When they have larger properties, and they typically have more money, you know. So, to me, it just seems like a regressive tax, and that's frustrating to me. So, I understand we don't really have another option other than going back to, like, general tax revenue covering fire services, and I'm sure I don't have support for that. Yeah, I mean, if I could just respond. So, it's different than what we've done, but it's still progressive from what most other fire stations do, which is one, it's just one rate. You just have one rate. It's a readiness rate, and that's it. And so, by tiering it, it's better than it could be, but because we've never addressed that base rate, we've got to do something now based on the study. So, I agree with you because we really pushed the envelope when we implemented it, but I think, you know, we didn't do it last year. We have to do it this year. But what I was trying to point out was that we're not raising more money. We're still cognizant of that from the standpoint of our overall budget, but, yeah, those that are, the base rate's going up. Right, and I guess that's the point is that if we're not raising any more money, then the people who are paying more are going to be the people who have the smallest properties that just pay that base rate. Like, that's really, in a lot of ways, I mean, everyone pays the base rate, but you know what I'm saying. But the alternative could be, okay, everybody just pays a fire assessment, and then that would be much higher. Right, it's just straight much higher. So, I mean, I get it. I just want to put that out there because I think it's frustrating to me that there's not some other mathematical equation we could use. No, I mean, staff and the manager, you know, in anticipation of what's going to happen next year with the tax rates and the legislature and the November report, you know, we are now in a constant, we are looking at everything all the time. So, we've talked about, okay, now that we did this, now we're pushing that higher end on the range, okay, we take it next year and we go through the year and say, okay, is there another way to do it? Is there something better? Or, like you said, do we go to a tax? Do we not? And present you those options for next year. Okay. And I did want to say that, you know, for folks that are really finding it hard right now with the way that things are going with the economy, we do have hardship exemptions. So, folks can always apply for those hardship exemptions if they need them. And I believe that applies to the fire assessment as well, correct? It applies to all assessments. What it doesn't apply to is ad valorem. So, the fact that we do this in an assessment at least allows that option. And then the other question I have is what exemptions do we have to this? How does this apply to commercial properties and nonprofits and those sorts of things? Can we do – sorry. I know we just want to fly through, but this was the one that I – Hi. Good afternoon, Chair. Harold Theis, Fire Rescue. There are several exemptions that we have. It is the 501c3s, 100% disabled veterans, is also an exemption. You mentioned the hardship also that is there. There's also an agricultural exemption where only the improved residential structure now can be assessed in an agricultural setting. Okay. Is it possible to get a list of the exemptions and the total of those? Thank you. Okay. Move the fire assessment and authorize the notice of the public hearing. Motion in a second. Any further discussion to the motion on the floor? Are there any citizens' comments to the motion that's on the floor? Back to the board. Those in favor of the motion, vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Chair, the next is FY26 Sugarfoot Oaks Cedar Ridge Special Assessment District, the initial assessment resolution and authorization to properly notice the public hearing. This is the initial assessment resolution authorizing a public hearing to set the rates for Sugarfoot Oaks Cedar Ridge Special Assessment District for fiscal year 2526 and directing the provision of notice as legally required. Authorize incorporation of Sugarfoot Oaks Cedar Ridge budget into the FY26 county budget. The Sugarfoot Board met on May 7, 2025 to determine and adopt the assessment fee and annual budget. The FY26 fee will continue to be $10 per unit and generate $99,240. Their FY26 proposed operating budget is $104,453.60. Mr. Chair, staff recommends adopting the resolution of the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, establishing and imposing a non-advalorum assessment for the Sugarfoot Oaks Cedar Ridge Enhancement Plan, describing the method of assessing the costs of the enhancement plan against property owners who own parcels within the special assessment district, providing for inclusion of the assessment on the assessment roll, providing an effective date and setting a public hearing, proposed $10 per unit assessment, and incorporating the FY26 proposed operating budget of $104,453.60 to be included in the county's FY26 budget. Yes, they do. Move staff recommendation. Second. Is there anybody here from? There? Here? Anybody? No? Yes, that's a good one. That's the assessment that's a good one. Okay, got a motion and a second. Are there any further discussion to the motion on the floor? Are there any citizen comments to the motion that's on the floor? Back to the Board. Those in favor of the motion will by the sound of aye. Aye. Those opposed, same side. Motion carries. Mr. Chair, the next is the solid waste assessment, and there is a typo in the fiscal note. All of the agenda items got tired of me saying no, and it decided not to listen when there is no increase to solid waste for FY2526. This is the initial assessment resolution authorizing a public hearing to set the rates for solid waste assessments for FY2526 and directing proper notice of hearing, including through the notice of proposed taxes, which is trim. And solid assessment. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion to the motion that's on the floor? Are there any citizen comments to the motion that's on the floor? Back to the Board. Those in favor of the motion will by the sound of aye. Aye. Aye. As opposed, same side. Motion carries. Mr. Chair, the next is the stormwater non-ad valorem assessment, initial assessment resolution, and authorization to properly notice the public hearing. This is the initial assessment resolution authorizing a public hearing to set the rates for stormwater non-ad valorem assessment for fiscal year 2526 and directing proper notice of the hearing, including through the notice of proposed taxes, trim. The FY26 proposal is to remain at a $60 per equivalent residential unit, ERU, with the maximum amount of the annual assessment estimated to be $3.6 million. Mr. Chair, staff recommends adopting resolution of the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, relating to the delivery and funding of stormwater capital improvements in infrastructure and management services within the unincorporated portion of Alachua County for stormwater capital improvements and infrastructure and management services, restating and renewing Resolution 2017-45 and 2017-64 regarding the stormwater services assessment, directing the county manager or her designee as assessment coordinator to prepare a preliminary assessment role, establishing a public hearing to consider imposition of the proposed special assessment, directing the provision of notice and connection therewith in providing an effective date at a rate of $60 per ERU. Moves staff to recommendation. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion to the motion that's on the floor? Are there any citizen comments to the motion that's on the floor? Back to the Board. Those in favor of the motion, vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Chair, the next is the FY26 non-ad valorem hospital assessment. You'll recall that last year we were notified that the hospitals were asking for this resolution. We are looking to bring this back to you a little bit different on September 23rd because it does deal with Medicaid rates. We're anticipating that we're not going to get those for the first meeting, and we'll have them for the second meeting. Okay. So staff recommends adopting resolution of the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, to recognize the unanticipated revenue from the hospital non-ad valorem special assessment. Got a motion and a second. Are there any further discussion to the motion that's on the floor? Are there any citizen comments to the motion that's on the floor? Back to the Board. Those in favor of the motion, vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Chair, that's the last of the assessments. The last item that I have for this evening is the renewal of our Live Local Act, the property tax exemption opt-out resolution. We adopted this last year, and we intend to bring this back each year to make sure that the Board still wishes to continue with that policy. So I am looking for a recommendation to renew the option to continue to opt-out of certain tax exemptions available under the Live Local Act. So moved. Yeah, AHAC still is in support of us doing that. Okay. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion to the motion? Are there any citizen comments to the motion that's on the floor? Okay, back to the Board. Those in favor of the motion, vote by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Okay. Are there any public comments, general public comments? Going once, going twice, gone. We've had commission comments, so we are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. 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