have you. This is our first public hearing for our budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026. Please join me for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. If there are no additional items, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Madam Chair, I'll move to approve the agenda. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. We will now hear from the public. I have three request to speak forms. The first is David Britt, followed by J. Paul Moore. If you would like to speak to us, please fill out a request to speak form and hand it to the bailiff. And you have three minutes to address this. My name is David Britt. I live in Jensen Beach. And there's three things I want to touch on real quick. One, bright line. Don't do it, please. With their budget and their problems they're having, and with the government or state government not sending, giving money to the cities and counties, we can't afford it. Indian River Park. It needs a lot of work done down there. The lakes are getting algae filled. It's not a big deal, I guess. But when you got kids who want to play close to the water and all that stuff, it's aggravating. Two, some of the land that has been empty for years down there since I've been here. Can we do something with it? Make it some kind of exercise park for people, seniors or whatever? And third, the driving on Jensen Boulevard is really getting ridiculous. People are speeding, unbelievable. And that's about it, really. We just don't do the bright line. We don't need that problem. And down the road, the taxpayers are going to have to pay more and more money for it. So they can't make it now. They're going broke. We don't need bright line. So that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. J. Paul Moore is next, followed by Chuck Winn. Good evening, commissioners. Good to see you all and everyone. My name is J. Paul Moore, and I'm a real estate broker and home owner from Palm City. I stand before you today to respectfully urge you to reject the proposed increase in the millage rate for property taxes. Everyone understands our county requires funding to provide essential services, schools, law enforcement, parks, infrastructure. The proposed 10.69% property tax increase places an undue and unfair burden on the very people who have invested their lives and livelihoods into our community, the homeowners. The core of my concern and the concern of many residents that I work with dealing in real estate is the justification for ever increasing property taxes. We are being asked to pay more not because we have earned more, but because the on paper market value of our homes has increased. This is a tax on unrealized gain, a gain that exists only on paper. Until a homeowner sells their home, they don't receive a dollar of the on paper market valuation, yet they are taxed as if they received a windfall. This is particularly debilitating for homeowners who are on fixed incomes. They may have lived in their houses for decades, but an increase in property value can become an ever-increasing financial burden in reality. It's sometimes forcing them to choose between paying increased property taxes or covering other essential living costs. A property tax on unrealized gain is really a tax on stability. It's a tax on long-term residency and on the very idea of American homeownership. It's a punitive measure that punishes residents for a market trend that they have no control over. I ask you to consider the real-world impact of this proposal. Seek alternative solutions that do not penalize loyal residents based on the value of their homes. Reject the tax increase and protect the financial stability of Martin County homeowners. Thank you. Thank you. Chuck Wynn is next, followed by Sarah Jesse Hernandez. Good afternoon. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. For the record, my name is Chuck Wynn. I live at 1520 Northwest Lakeside Trail in North River Shores, which abuts North Stewart. I urge you this evening to closely scrutinize any final agreement for a Brightline station before making your funding decision. The original plan cleverly camouflage the excessively leveraged financial condition of Brightline, who would be your partner. The transit-oriented development pieces were also very well hidden. Brightline consistently has failed to profitably run its core function of providing rail transportation service. First, Brightline must pay for half the cost of the station and any other costs required for pedestrian aerial bridges over the tracks or an alternative ground crossing if they're required, and $1 million towards safety fencing requirements that were determined by a hazard analysis. Second, any and all land linked to a final station agreement must be limited to not more than the minimum essential service surface area required for parking. Brightline's only profitable operations have been related to developing parcels of land they have gained control of in similar agreements. The two and a half acres in the mixed-use areas in the original agreement must be excluded. Their ideal development targets for heavily subsidized HUD affordable housing grants that carry very long strings. Third, clearly defined and measurable provisions for management and oversight control have to be included. Fourth, all items like the hazard analysis for this station must be made public. This was never done in the original agreement. Any train station must not become the cornerstone of a long-range sustainable development plan for transforming Martin County into a heavily urbanized transit-oriented development community. Any project resembling the original would be the cornerstone of a sustainable community development that the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and the Department of Transportation have been promoting for decades. Always remember, federal grants may look very attractive, but they have strings attached that can gut home rule and obligate local budgets. Please let me pick my own losers in the market. Don't do it for me. Thank you. Sarah Jessica Hernandez is next, followed by Karen Wells. Sarah Jessica Hernandez I was formerly black. I have lived in Martin County my entire life. I'm here as a Martin County resident myself on my own home. Last year you lowered the millage rate and I do thank you because I do see it. I saw the relief on my trim notice, but raising it now erases that progress. With growth like we're seeing, there's no need for an increase. If anything, you could lower it again. I know you're going to say inflation. I work in insurance. I see inflation every day and I get it, but that's not what's happening here. Our taxable property values jumped 12.7 percent to 39.2 billion and more than 1,300 new residents came last year. Entire communities like Newfield have already started and already being inhabited. Story is on the brink and bringing in new revenue. I know Story isn't, but Newfield has started. That growth should offset costs, not be pushed onto long-time residents like myself and everyone else that might be here sitting in this room. On my five-acre property, my taxes are already over $8,000 a year, which I'm finding I'm very lucky because I did buy my house much lower than other people that don't have ag. Families like mine can't keep absorbing more. Martin County is our hometown. It's always been a hometown. Everyone here is speaking up to keep it a hometown. Please do not let rising taxes push out the very people who have built it and have continued and have chosen to stay here and grow their families here. Please hold the line and consider another decrease, not increase. Thank you. Karen Wells is next, followed by Maria Waddle. Good afternoon. Hi. I also believe that you should reconsider raising the taxes. I did a little bit of research and just in my community, there's 238 homes and it's an average of about $9,000 a year per lot. That brings $2,142,000. And what I have learned over this time is that those of us in an HOA, not only do we pay taxes, but we pay HOA fees, which negate any, anything that the county feels that, you know, they should do for us. It's always call your HOA. So when you want to raise our taxes and the HOA fees are raised, and we're not getting even the enforcement of the ordinances that you already have on the books, what am I going to get for these raised taxes? The HOA sound property that's going to be built with the golf course, the developer said, it's going to bring $40 to $50 million a year to the county with zero cost. So basically HOAs are subsidizing. So we're already being double taxed. We don't need a raise in taxes. What we need is to keep the taxes low because we pay double taxes, but we need what we are paying for to be enforced as well. When I call about an ordinance and I'm told call my HOA. My HOA didn't write the ordinance. You guys wrote the ordinance. The word shall, we can agree, is an obligation. I have 10 ordinances that have been destroying my family's ability to even use our own swimming pool because you guys won't enforce your own ordinance. So on top of taxes and HOA fees, I'm $42,000 into a lawsuit to try to get a nuisance stopped that you guys could have stopped with a letter if you enforce your ordinances. But now you want me to pay more taxes. And, you know, Mr. Campy, with all due respect, I contacted your office in October last year and I finally got a call back in April because I happened to know Brian Mast who reached out. Stacy said, we're going to stay on top of it. I've never heard back from Stacy again. So, you know, when I come out and I have voted for you twice, okay? Because we have a mutual friend and I've told you who that is. I came out and I voted for you. But you know what? You don't represent me. Why am I voting? We in HOAs are not represented and it's not right. And we shouldn't pay anything, let alone more. Thank you. Thank you. Maria Waddle is next, followed by Dana Straley. Good afternoon. Hi. How are you? My name is Maria Waddle. The only reason I'm here is because I've been working 36 years in the medical field as an x-ray tech and as an ultrasound tech. I just retired because I was forced to for an illness. And I did a budget before I decided to retire. And of course, my social security is low, as you all know. And the only reason why I come here is just to ask you not to increase this tax because that's going to me, that for me, it's going to be a shortage of money because it's a big chunk that you guys want to increase it. So, I just decided just to come and do this. So, you know, some of us live of a budget and we're not going to make it if this keeps increasing. Thank you. Thank you. Dana Straley is next, followed by Charlie DeToro. Hi. My name is Dana Straley. My question, I don't know, maybe you answered it in the budget hearings back in, or the workshops back in July. Hidden in the constitutional officer's increased budget request, I assume is some costs for the 287-G program for the sheriff's office. And are we, the Martin County taxpayers, getting reimbursed from the federal government for any of that? That would be great for Martin County taxpayers. Or how much are we spending to help ICE meet their quotas for probably a few actual criminals and a lot of hard-working landscapers and other people? I just, I'm sure it's in the budget somewhere, but I can't find where. We don't get a line item budget from the sheriff. Okay. Thank you. Charlie DeToro is next, and Mr. DeToro is the last request to speak for my hand. Hi, my name is Charlie. I'm a 40-year resident of Martin County. I just want to say that this county is pricing out the young people. I just spent nine weeks driving around this country, and everywhere I look, it seems to me that Martin County is higher in gas, higher insurance, enormously higher in restaurant costs. Everywhere I look, whether I was in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Nashville, Canton, Ohio, Troy, Illinois, I feel sorry for the young people here. I don't understand how. I'm lucky. Years ago, I bought two houses for my kids, so they're good. I don't know how a 28-year-old or 30-year-old can afford living in Martin County anymore. Property taxes are crazy. Here's a case of mine. For some reason, my property value went down. I live in Jensen, which I was happy about. My value went down $12,000, but my portability went down $32,000. So you would think, in property taxes, it goes down, I should pay less, but then there's this hidden little shell game called portability, and you guys are just pricing people out of this county. That's all I got to say. Thank you. We will move on to Commissioner comments. Commissioner Vargas. Will we have comments after, or is this the only time? This is the only time. I thought long and hard about this meeting, and I believe all of us on this dice are like-minded politically. We believe in smaller government. We want more community involvement, and we are for the people, and I believe that we are or should be working towards the same goal. These are hard decisions, but somebody needs to make these decisions. This is why we were elected, and why the voters give us a report card every four years. I believe that we need to come to common ground and save taxpayers money and get them in a better financial position. This is what I've heard this evening. This is what I've heard before. I'm a taxpayer in Martin County also. So the people have elected us to be put, or to remain, which is precarious now, in a safe financial position. We all can stop the progression of taxes being raised. The trajectory from all the departments every year is more and more. And I believe, and I hope that you do also, this commission, that we must be more stable economically and the financial future must be more stable instead of garnering, collecting more debt or taking on more debt. So I think with the less debt, we're in a stronger position for the county. And I think tonight is the right time to start this process. You know, it's important when we do leave office, we can all be proud of what we've strived to better, to make stronger the financial future for all of our hardworking taxpayers. We all must learn, all must learn to live within our means. This is what we do in our homes. We should do likewise in our government spending. The millage must be lowered to taxpayers' income streams. If we don't take a hard look now, our glide path is precarious and not being well thought out. Money is not being printed anymore. This is not 2022 with stimulus funds and paycheck protection. The status quo that we have been talking about over the last several months has us on a trajectory of more debt and more spending. Is that how we want to be? Is this what we're delivering to our taxpayers? The kind of budget that I would support cuts spending and the millage rate. But people don't pay in millage. They pay in dollars. And that means tax dollar reduction. Our taxpayers are entitled to and must get the benefit from how we govern this county. We should put the windfall, or I guess known as the largesse, but the windfall that we receive from this year's ad valorem income into reserves and pay down debt. We have a lot of projects that people want. Other departments want to hire more people. Maybe we should look at that very carefully. We only have so many dollars to go around. I've heard the comments tonight. I've heard them before. People email me. We respond right away from my district. Again, I said that we have to learn to live within our means. I cannot support raising taxes for the hardworking Martin County taxpayers. We need to cut them now. And I think we need to find a beneficial way to implement what we're doing in this county, which is to provide services and safety and a quality of life that each of those fine individuals that have chosen Martin County over every other place to live should be given unconditionally. I think we need to do some math here. And we need to be looking at last year's roll up rate. And we need to even go further. We can do this. We can do this. And this is the night to do this right now. We need to cut taxes. Let's get healthy. Mr. Capps. Good evening. You know, there were a couple of folks who mentioned that maybe we were raising the millage rates. And one thing we need to clear up a little bit, we're not raising the millage rates. We're lowering the millage rates modestly, but we are lowering them in this budget. Let's all kind of get that cleared up. The amount of taxes, tax revenue is going up, but the millage rate is going down. So let's get clear on that. And then I thought I would mention a few other things that we mentioned in the budget workshop. All of the increases that we experienced personally and have experienced in recent years, like insurance, food, fuel, electric, all the expenses of life also apply to the county government. Their costs have gone up enormously as well in virtually everything. It's staggering to see how much more you have to pay for things in recent years. What we all tend to forget is during the Joe Biden years, inflation was eight and nine percent, you know, and we're feeling the effects of that today. All that has to be paid for. You know, the cost of things in recent years have been dramatically climbing, you know, to pave a mile of asphalt now is enormously more expensive than it was just a few years ago. So we have to keep that in mind. There are, so we live in an inflationary economy. Also, the county is growing in population, not massively, but it does grow. And you need a local government that adjusts to meet the demands of a growing community. So the idea of a rollback tax rate that brings in the exact same amount of revenue this year as last year is unreasonable because you're, you have a growing population that is almost impossible to run a local government with a rollback rate. It never happens. Look at the history of taxes in any local government in the state of Florida and you will find that rollback rates are not feasible because we live in an inflationary economy and the costs of things continue to rise all of the time. My thinking about this particular budget is that we're holding the millage steady. We're dropping it a little bit, but this is a year when we can get some things done and we have to remember what happens in recessions. And we're not, we're not immune from another great recession of 2008. And that was a very memorable thing for all of us. And it wasn't too long ago when there was a three or four year period where there was basically an economic collapse. Property values were chopped in half in this community and the local government here was running on fumes for several years. And there was no option at that time. You couldn't get anything done. Not all the projects stopped. That could happen again. My thinking is this is a year when we have some extra revenue because of some high-end projects that were brought to bear in our community like Discovery Lands and Apogee Golf Courses. And they're bringing in extra money. This is a year to get some things done because we have the money to do it without raising the millage rate. This is a year when we can get some things done in anticipation that three or four years from now, or maybe just two years from now, we could slide into recession where we're not getting anything done for an extended period of time. That could easily happen to us. So that's my thinking on it. I have supported the budget, or I did support the budget in the workshop, and I intend to hold study on that this evening. Thank you. Commissioner Campy. You know, I've had the opportunity, the honor actually, to be up here for lots of budgets. I started my political career in 2008 and 9 when everyone remembers. At the time, we didn't realize what it was, but looking back in history was the Great Recession, where we slashed and burned wherever we could like everybody else did. These processes are interesting, and I appreciate that you would come out to participate. It's a multi-month, thousands of hours go into this budget across every single department. You're going to hear from a couple of our folks, Ms. Murley in particular, that runs our office of budget. From Mr. Donaldson, our county administrator, I see the emails, the social media, and the rest of it, and I get frustrated, as you would, for coming in. But there are a couple of opportunities throughout the year for you to participate in the internal workings of your government. The first and most easy is a program called CARES. It happens a couple of times a year. It used to be twice, and we added to it because we've had thousands of folks just like you go through the CARES program. You meet for free on Thursday mornings for four weeks in a row, and you go through every department. You literally travel around and go to the departments, the sheriff's office, and everything else. I think, you know, look, we're not going to change your opinions necessarily today, and we can agree on certain things and disagree on others. But if you are genuinely interested in seeing really how does this work, and where does the money go, and why am I paying what I'm paying, I really encourage you to do that program. It starts up again. So that's the first thing, because otherwise you're just listening to five elected officials speak. Now to my new colleague, I appreciate her passion for let's lower it, let's cut it, we can do it. But this process started months ago with workshops, and our staff was told prior to that from Mr. Donaldson that 90 percent of our departments came in with no increases, with decreases. If you were looking for even a single additional employee, you had to really state your case on why that was. First, you had to get through the budget office, and then if you were fortunate enough as a department to get through the budget office, then you ended up in Mr. Donaldson's office. So I don't want you to think that we're just, you know, rolling out checks here. You can, look, I'm as frustrated with the cost of living as everybody else. I have a 29-year-old who just purchased a home. It's, I tell people it's a handyman special, and I'm the handyman. We had to gut the entire home, and we were lucky to get it. And they used all of their savings to just purchase it, and had no money left to fix it up. So I'm living that in real time. But that being said, coming and looking at the budget, there are certain things that are important, maybe not to you. I always say we had a commissioner who said, every dollar has a constituency group. If you don't go to our library system, you don't have much interest in the library or golf courses or beaches. You pick what you like, and then there's a group that would contact us and say, there's no reason that the government should be involved in those things. Environmental issues are very, very important for us here in Martin County, and we spend a lot of money on our environment. Some people would look at that and say, I don't see that as being areas that we should spend money on. Hopefully tonight, if we get into a little of this, our biggest expense for everyone is public safety. Fire rescue in the sheriff's office is a majority, a very large majority of the budget. No one really, and you know, we've had the sheriff here, both Snyder and now Boot and Seek. We've had the chief of the fire department. They've had to come and, you know, explain themselves to the public. Some of you have probably been here in years past where they've come. No one wants to really give up on those things. So if there are suggestions from my colleagues, what I would say tonight is, as I have said many times, let's hear your suggestions. To make a grand speech on that, it needs to be lower. The staff has presented what they feel is their tightest budget. It then becomes our situation to make those determinations. So short of just saying we should lower it, we need to actually hear those suggestions and vet them out. Certain categories cannot be touched. Some people say, well, take it from here and put it over there. And I know you're here, you're smart, educated group. Most of you are business people. Certain governmental categories are not allowed to be shifted from one area to the other. They're just not allowed. So when I reviewed the budget as the five of us have, and, you know, Commissioner Capps can hold it up. If you do the printed version, it's multiple binders. There it is. Thousands of pages front and back. Or you can have the electronic version, which is what I use on my iPad. I see things that I would cut, but maybe a couple of my colleagues are not interested in cutting. So when you look at it, the five of us, and we hear what we hear. In terms of the new things, Newfield has closed on a handful of homes that doesn't even really begin to blip on the radar screen, as well as the fact that most, a lot of people were furious that we did Newfield. But that is a revenue, potential revenue generator. The three golf courses that we hear a lot about, and some people were in favor of them, even if you never stepped foot on them, what you need to understand about the three golf courses, Atlantic Fields on Bridge Road, is just beginning to build their first homes. That just 2024 is the first year of some of those dollars being pushed into our general revenue. But we primarily work a year behind. So you won't see some of those advantages until next year. Atlantic Fields on Bridge Road, Apogee, and the Ranch, those three. Here's some statistics to share. I thought when I heard them, I thought they were interesting. I'll share them. That's nearly 9,000 acres of Martin County property with less than 500 homes on 9,000 acres. And it will potentially generate for us, not the school district, not FIND, not the Children's Services Council, $60 million. So there is a bright spot in the future for three projects. Now, when people say, well, it won't cost anything, of course it will cost something. But for most of those folks, Apogee is a couple of thousand acres, doesn't have a single home on it. They're not going to school. They're not going to the beach. They're not going to the library. Maybe they'll need some police. Maybe they'll need some fire rescue. But they'll pay. The other thing that really frustrates me as one of your representatives is that Martin County, our economic picture is way lopsided. Majority, if you've lived somewhere else and you go back or if you have family members that live somewhere else, ask them to find out what their percentages are of their tax base. We are nearly 96 or 7% residentially funded. That means you and us, residential taxpayers, because we have a disproportionate, we don't have any industry. I just was at an event today where Ashley Capital was speaking. They're the largest private land, industrial landowner in Martin County. They're just getting started on their first 90 acres of potential business opportunity. Every dollar that an industrial or commercial taxpayer pays, if we pay one, they pay four. If we have a 6% industrial base, the burden of running our community and paying for it falls on the rest of us, the residents. So when you hear about a project out in Western Palm City or down in Hobes Sound or out on the way to Indiantown, that's an industrial project. Because remember, they're not just paying for the building and property taxes where a majority of the tax revenue is generated. It's on tangible personal property. You heard it today. You're paying for the value of your home. You're not paying for the value of the items in your home, but all of the businesses pay tangible personal property. They're paying your business people. You probably paid that tax rate yourself. So we have 90, let's say 95% of our tax bill is paid by residents, only five. We need to work on that. Now there's cutting that can be done. Our staff has done cutting. As Commissioner Capps mentioned, and I don't know, you know, some people said this morning, I mean this during the public comment, you know, don't we hear you're raising the millage. The proposed budget that we are to tentatively approve today has a modest single point decrease. You don't have a parade for that, but it's not an increase. And there was very little extra employees added to that list. And there was very little additional big major projects added to that list. So as we continue to run the county, there's a bit of a frustration on, yes, it's easy to say, let's lower our taxes. I like that too. I looked at my trim sheet just like you did. My value of my home has gone up, which is, I guess, good news. But I liked what the person said, you know, Jay Paul said about, you know, look, if I don't realize that value, but I'm still paying for it, that's not our system. That's the system. And so I think, you know, I know three of us have been up here for several budgets. Two are new. I'm a fiscal conservative. I want to have a level of services that we all can appreciate. And remember, most of them are public safety. I'm not going to sacrifice police and fire because those are catastrophic outcomes if something goes wrong. Now, God bless you if your life has never required you to ever dial 911. But if you have to, I think I owe it. I always say our first dollar of taxes should go to public safety. Some of these other things, yeah, I could cut them, but maybe they're things that are very important to you. So I think this is a reasonable budget. I think a lot of effort and time went into crafting it. Our phone is always available. Stephanie Murley is our new director of OMB, Office of Budget. She's sitting right here in the front. Jennifer Manning had been there for 30, 35 years. Here was our budget, who was Stephanie Murley's predecessor. Every year, the state, is it the statewide award you guys win or is it a federal award? It's a national award. National award on how we conduct and construct our budget. Every single year they win it. They don't throw them out. They're not door prizes, but we win that. She is available. I'm telling you right now in front of her and her staff, if you have a specific question beyond lower the budget, you can come here and sit with them and ask your specific questions. I did it with the property appraiser. My wife and I recently moved and we downsized, so we thought. From a 3% interest rate to a 6.825% interest rate. From a $4,500 insurance bill to a $10,500 insurance bill. I bought a wooden house that was 40 years old. Good for me. But our staff is willing to answer any of your questions. Any of them. Mr. Donaldson, he runs the county. If you have questions that you want to specifically know about your house, ask our staff. But also, sit down with the property appraiser, either Jenny Fields herself or one of her deputies. I did it and found a lot of ways that I was overpaying after moving on techniques and savings options that she had that I didn't, I, who, a part of this, didn't realize. Those two things can immediately affect what you're doing. Maybe you're overpaying your taxes and you don't even know it. I spoke to my insurance agent. I review that annually now. I never did that before, but the numbers get so high you have no choice. So today you're going to hear about this budget. And I think a majority of us have felt comfortable enough with the process and what we've heard from our staff to feel that we could give you this budget with a straight face. And that's all I can say. Some of you will say, okay, that guy's full of nonsense. He's an elected official. We don't agree with the word he says. But I'm telling you that I'm living in the real world with you. And I have expenses just like you. I'm not a rich person. And I've had the opportunity to be in here and review this budget. And I feel with a straight face, I can tell you that it's a fair budget. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. I'm going to be brief so Ms. Murley can get with her public hearing. So I wrote down a couple things. And CARES, I think I wholeheartedly agree. That's probably the best learning experience. And I've had an opportunity to talk to some residents recently that participated. And one of the most enlightening thing in that process and some of the state committees that we sit on is that when you hand a different person five different bills and they have to allocate where that money is spent, many people will spend it differently. But I think many of us agree that putting down the first dollar or two into public safety, and Ms. Murley and I talked about that, but then you don't have choices. Because if you prioritize public safety, then you have less flexibility when it comes to would you put your dollar down for stormwater or road improvements or libraries and parks and additional facilities? And those are the difficult decisions that we have to do every year. And everybody prioritizes differently. And I've been critical of the budget process in the past, but I will say that I credit staff. They did a great job of putting together the budget. And I think that as a fiscal conservative, it's something that I can definitely get behind. And I like that, A, we prioritize public safety, which is the number one thing I think important to 95% of constituents, if not 100, in our community. I like that we've really focused on improving our stormwater, that we've focused on eliminating debt, and we've focused on putting some of our reserves for emergency expenditures. And that's even what I heard my colleague say at the beginning, that that's the things that are important to many of us that we want to focus on. I also printed out this property because, you know, while we are having a modestly decreasing millage, sometimes when people see a number and they look at other counties and municipalities and try to compare apples to apples, I had a property that I've sold because it became, you know, I too, you know, live in the real world. And the bottom line is the bottom line. When your insurance is increasing, you know, 40%, then you're feeling the burden of everything, inflation, gas, you know, taxes. So even if your millage is increasing, you're feeling some of these impacts on raising insurance. But when I looked at the millage on a property that I owned up in St. Lucie, I thought, wow, the millage is a little bit, you know, I've since sold that. But it was a little bit less than Martin County. And I look at the quality of services we have in Martin County. But when I went through my trim notice, and I looked at that property, well, the millage seemingly looked like it was less. However, there is an extra charge for stormwater, there was extra charge for the fire district fire wasn't included inside, you know, that millage, there is extra charges for, you know, shoreline restoration, every, you know, the millage seemingly looked like it was lower. But I was being charged for every other service that was provided. So you know, there, one thing I say about Martin County, the millage is the millage, we don't separate all those different services out. And I think overall, that this has been a, a tough, you know, it's been a well put together budget. So and, and I, I concur that if you have questions, and you need information that we have a very responsive staff, and commissioners that will gladly talk you, you know, talk to you and hear your concerns. And I'm actually glad to see people showing up at the public hearing. So thank you for dedicating your time, because I know it's, it's five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon, and you probably have other things. So we appreciate hearing your input. Mr. Donaldson. Thank you, commissioners, as a brief introduction. And as was stated earlier, our department start out with a budget. And the first thing that Ms. Murley and I look at is the, what is the base budget that they, they have. And also, we've been looking at the actual line items and how they're being spent. So we just, for all those in the audience, we don't take last year's budget and just say there was a 3% inflation or an 8%, whatever, and apply to it. We actually look at, we have a specific line items for like contracted services, and whether it was mowing or, or painting services or janitorial services, and look at what the actual contract was for, and does that total the amount within a specific line item. Then we look at, if we bid those projects out during the year, did they go up? And so the first thing we look at is the cost of doing business. And the only thing we approved for that is, is a justification that the line item for electricity is X because it went up, or in some cases it goes down. So we're going to reduce that particular line item. And then each department has to submit if there is some particular service they're looking to enhance or improve and provide justification. And I will pick on one of my departments here, but I really have a lot of pride in our library system. And Jen Salas says for years, basically always has a very thin budget. And one of the things we've been seen in there is our actual usage is going up, they've had a lot of different programs. And so the participation in that we have homeschool students that use our libraries a lot and moms come in. So they, the number of services they provide is significant. And I also know that every time we have a hurricane or, or threatened tropical event, and we open up our AOC and a big number of their staff or volunteers, we have to close the library because we don't have enough staff to cover it. And so, you know, they are very thin. They have been very thin for a long time. And so there are a couple of staff positions in there that I think were, were justified. And I appreciate the board including them because they are providing a great service and, and the demand for that service has been going up. So I use that as an example. Sorry, Jen, I know, you don't like to be in the limelight, but she does a great job. And, and so that is just an example of how the budget was put together. I, the focus on the, the, the, the, the millage of, of, of those projects, if you will, or the, the, you know, certainly we are, are cognizant of evaluation increases. And, and, and we're concerned about how that's being used. And, and in this year's budget, the priorities, as Commissioner Heatherner talked about, was, was addressing our debt. You know, I think that's a, a, an important thing that frees up revenue in the future or allows for greater millage rates reductions in the future. It's a, a very important, I know, from the state perspective, too, on looking at how your debt to ratio. We have a very low debt ratio, but this will help out. We also put in money into the reserves. We know that the, the federal government and FEMA and its relationships with the state is changing. And talking to my colleagues on the West Coast that have had significant damage, you know, it used to be, we would think $20 million for debris pickup was a lot of money. Now, over there, it's 80 to 100 million dollars. And those funds are not coming in quick enough for them to do the work. So they're having to borrow $60 million or so for their $80 million project. And they're paying interest on it. I know, talking to Senator Scott's office and what they're looking for is how do we get the money faster so you don't have to borrow money, but you're probably going to get less. And so I think there may be some positive things there, but nonetheless, having adequate reserves to deal with our own disasters immediately is, is important as we saw with the tornadoes last year. And then the other key areas that we talked about was, is our maintaining what we already own. You know, for a long time, and a lot of governments have struggled with fixing and repairing the facilities we own and operate. We have had a number of areas in Morton County over the years with drainage problems. We've been catching up, but putting the, are putting in funds for roads, bridges and drainages is the other area. And then, and then you'll see when Ms. Murley talks about the staffing increases, it's just really in our library and our public buildings management is it. So I think percentage-wise, it's very low. I think Martin County, we try to be staff lean, but having well-trained professionals provide the service that you, that we do. So that's the general snapshot. And I appreciate Commissioner Heathering talking about, you know, how you compare one county to the other. You know, there's the state of Florida provided the local governments with a lot of different tools on how they generate funds and development. You know, the state of Florida has grown on development. You have community development districts to help developers build roads. And then you have all these special districts. I think Martin County sort of has this truth in millage. All your services really are easy to identify in your general fund principally. And so you'll find that if you look in other areas where you have drainage districts, Fort Pierce Farms, water control district, or other, if you live in other counties, there's a whole myriad of mosquito control districts, separate elected officials, separate millage rates that complicate how you compare one community to another. But I think if you look at the bottom line of what you spend actually in Martin County for the same equivalent property is significantly less than our neighbors. And I think that's a testament to the fiscal guidance that our board has done. So with that, I'll turn it over to Ms. Murley, who's going to go through the formalities of our budget. Thank you. Please proceed. One second, please, before you begin. Please. One second. I'm on my way to Georgia, so I got you. But that being said, if there are any suggestions from my colleagues, now's the time to hear them. Otherwise, we're just, we're moving ahead. I'm interested if there are suggestions. Okay. So my question is, since I'm new on the board, but I do understand money, I understand expenditures, and I do understand income, how can we work together to find a reasonable amount that reduces the expenditures? You know, I see that what we're doing is we're going to be failing our future generations here in Martin County that have to bear the burden of our decisions today. So I'm asking for suggestions from the seasoned colleagues. What do you want to cut? I leave that to you. Since you have this information. No, no, no. Since you have this information, and this is my first budget hearing, there's plenty to cut if you really looked at individual projects. Just prioritize. Tell us which ones you want to cut and see if you can gain consensus from four other commissioners. I think there are a number of CIP projects that need to be put on hold. Which ones are those? The ones that have the largest dollar amount. We could go through the book again if you want, but I don't think that's what we're here for. I think that's something that we can do. Well, we approved the CIP back in April. So we've had four months, five months in order to evaluate the CIP projects. We did not know what our income would be. We still really don't. There's so much unknown. With all due respect to my new colleague, and I get it. This has been an, you came on board, you and Commissioner Capps came on board in November. The CIP, for those folks that are not familiar, that's the capital improvement plan. Those are the larger projects. They have a five-year budget. It's a separate entity, and there are big projects and little projects. To say let's cut the largest of the projects sounds like the easiest, let's cut from the biggest ones, but some of them are roads and bridges, maintenance, and things like that are not that easy to cut. The process of the budget began several months ago, and then we had workshops where some of these things, and in all due respect, had come up where there were questions. Our staff, if our staff is available to you, you can certainly rest assured the staff is available to us. And what's happening is the five of us have had the same pride. We're not allowed to speak outside of this meeting. Many of you might not realize in Florida there's a sunshine law. We are not allowed to speak to each other about anything we're going to vote on outside of a public meeting just like this. I can't go into Commissioner Hurd's office and say, hey, I got a great idea. That's illegal. I can't say something to Miss Murley about a suggestion that I might have, and she can't then go along and tell everybody else that's telegraphing. That's also illegal. So what our staff has to do is speak to each of us five times. And what I normally tell our staff is, what number am I? Have you met with, who have you met with, not what did they say? Am I the third person you're meeting with? Am I the first person you're meeting with? Am I the last person you're meeting with? And then they can say, well, you know, the budget seems to be going along. But I have given suggestions, whether I'm here brand new or been here for two decades, the process is the process. We're this educated group up here. We put ourselves out there for the public to pick us for a multitude of reasons. And the staff was listening to suggestions. To be up here now, we even had the workshop. The workshop, by definition, was the workshop. And I said the same thing then. If you have suggestions, beyond saying we should cut the budget, I said this to Commissioner Hurd in the past. I've said it to Commissioner Smith in the past. If you have suggestions, you either should have given them to staff to be vetted, because sometimes, like I said, it sounds like a great idea until you realize that if you cut $100,000, it comes with a million-dollar grant that we needed to put up $100,000 as the local match. You don't want to cut that $100,000. And you don't know all of those details. But this is the point where we're tentatively adopting it. We're following a legal time frame. You got your trim notice, X amount of days passed, and we have to approve this. I like the concept of, let's hear from everybody. But I already had my 10 minutes, or whatever it was, with our staff. I pushed back on certain things that I thought shouldn't be in the budget. And Mr. Donaldson could say, I agree with you, and we'll see if we can find two other people to support that decision. Or I don't agree with you, because I've already heard from three commissioners, that's not on the table. We've done that. So I don't want you to feel like we're seeing this budget for the first time tonight. And part of having new commissioners, new fresh perspectives of smart people is, what do you know? What can you share with us? Not saying, okay, well, I think we should lower the budget. Give me your cuts. I already did that. We're going to have the opportunity tonight to vote on separate budgets. So if a commissioner wants to vote against a project, or a budget, then he or she will have the ability to vote against it. And there are four other commissioners who also have that ability. So without further ado, let's begin. Ms. Murley. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Stephanie Murley, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, here to present our fiscal year 2026 tentative budget public hearing. As we mentioned before, this is what is called our statutory trim timetable for local governments. As part of the truth and millage process, the board is statutorily required to hold a first public hearing on the proposed budget and millage rates between 65 and 80 days of the July 1 certification of taxable values provided by the property appraiser's office. And it's indicated here on that little arrow. So what is the purpose of us being here? The purpose is that the millage rates proposed today were discussed in length at the budget workshop that ended on July 21st, 2025, which is when we did all of the work evaluating all the projects needs and budget requests that were contained within this budget. The millage rates proposed today have been advertised via the trim notices that property owners received as a result of the budget workshop, which was held on July 21st of this year. So the board is required to adopt a tentative budget via approval of resolutions for each taxing authority's millage rates and corresponding budgets. And as part of the trim process, the adoption of the budget requires the contemplation of the rollback rate, which is the millage rate that would generate the same amount as the prior year's ad valorem tax revenues, less any allowances for new construction in additions to the valuation. So pursuant to trim guidelines, the county is permitted to have a millage rate cap of a total of 10 mils for both the countywide taxing authority, as well as 10 mils for the cumulative municipal services taxing units or the MSTUs. So as listed here, the proposed rates for fiscal year 2026 are all within the maximum allowable per Florida state statutes with the countywide being proposed at 6.5614 and the total MSTU at 3.8332. Now I'm not going to go over these one by one because they will be read with the budget resolutions, but these were all of the following millage rates that were tentatively approved with the budget workshop back in July. Each specific millage rate, rollback rate, and corresponding increase or decrease over the rollback rate will be recited with each resolution adoption. So per trim guidelines, I'm required to talk about the FY 2026, the ad valorem impacts are the drivers of this budget. As a reminder, property tax only represents 44% of our total budget, so these are the impacts that are related strictly to property taxes. The total new ad valorem generated, if the millage remained constant from last year, would have given us approximately $40.2 million, but the actual ad valorem need based on all of the budgeted expenditures that were vetted amounted to approximately $38.1 million, which resulted in a reduction of the total millage rate from last fiscal year. All the constitutional officers in 19 judicial circuit offices accounted for 30% of the new ad valorem request of $11.5 million. The capital improvement plan, which was tentatively reviewed and approved on April 22nd, is included for and accounted for $5.1 million of new ad valorem, and the CIP prioritized maintaining our infrastructure, roads, bridges, and jail facilities, and public buildings. Additionally, various reserves were allocated in the FY 26 budget. Our general fund restricted reserves have been fully replenished based on the county's fiscal policy reserve requirement. Additionally, the FY 26 tentative budget build strategic additional reserves to support a strong long-term fiscal strategy in the event of a downturn or disaster. These include reserves for future capital projects that were identified and approved within our CIP. Additional funds are being set aside to establish recurring revenues for anticipated public-private partnership projects for our public works facility. And finally, this budget includes reserves dedicated to the repayment of debt, helping to further improve the county's already strong long-term debt ratio and reinforce its strong standing with credit rating agencies. Other ad valorem impacts to the budget include mandatory obligations that are handed down to the county from the state, including the Florida Retirement System contribution rates, the county and city of Stewart's CRA payments and health insurance premiums, and new ad valorem requests related to technology needs to maintain current levels of service for Martin County, and new position requests for our library and general services complete the budget drivers from an ad valorem perspective. For the FY 26 proposed millage rates, overall the county's millage rate, the county-wide millage rate decreased by 0.246 percent for county-wide and 1.611 percent for unincorporated Martin County, with a total combined millage rate reduction of 0.713 percent. So this is the property tax rate that is being applied to your assessed value is decreasing. This marks the second consecutive budget cycle that the Martin County BOCC has reduced both the county-wide and overall unincorporated overall millage rates. The changes from FY 25 to FY 26 are summarized in this table. The county's taxable base increased overall by 12.8 percent, and the greatest drivers for that budget increase are overall the greatest drivers of the overall budget crease are mostly non-ad valorem, including the half-cent conservation land sales tax that was approved by Martin County voters in November of 2024, and as enterprise-funded operations such as our utilities and airport department. This budget includes 11 additional positions for the BOCC, 11.5 positions cumulatively for the constitutional officers, which most went for our sheriff. And then finally, the total millage rate reflects a reduction from 9.9897 to 9.9185. So there are tentative budget hearing requirements that are required per state statute. The board must adopt resolutions for tentative budget adoption. The resolutions are not required to be read in full, but must state the taxing authority, the rollback rate, the percentage increase or decrease over the rollback rate, and the millage rate to be levied for FY 26. The board must also call for public comment to comply with public hearing requirements. And with that, I have no additional information in my presentation. Any questions of Ms. Murley? Shall we go to the resolutions? I have them. Okay. Taxing authority, rollback rate, increase over rollback rate, and tentative millage rate. Yes. I move approval to set the tentative millage rate for the taxing authority of the Board of County Commissioners countywide with a rollback rate of 5.9159, percentage of increase over rollback rate of 10.91 for a tentative millage rate of 6.5614. Move approval. A second. Didn't you make a motion? Oh, yeah. I made the motion. Oh, you're the motion maker. All right. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval of tentative budget for taxing authority Board of County Commissioners countywide with a fund total of 318,825,362. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4 to 1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval to set tentative millage rate for the taxing authority of District 1, MSTU with a rollback rate of 0.0671, percentage of increase over rollback rate negative 0.75 for a tentative millage rate of 0.0666. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval of a tentative budget for taxing authority District 1, MSTU with fund total of 372,909 dollars. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval to set tentative millage rate for District 2, MSTU with a rollback rate of 0.06, excuse me, 0.0762, percentage of increase over rollback rate of negative 2.62 for a tentative millage rate of 0.0742. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval of tentative budget for District 2, MSTU with a fund total of 215,000 dollars. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval to set tentative millage for District 3, MSTU with a rollback rate of 0.02, 0.097, percentage of increase over rollback rate of 36.03 for a tentative millage rate of 0.0404. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4 to 1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of tentative budget for District 3, MSTU with a fund total of 324,881 dollars. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4 to 1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval to set tentative millage for District 4, MSTU with a rollback rate of 0.0485, with a percentage of increase over rollback rate of negative 1.44 for a tentative millage rate of 0.0478. Second. Second. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval of a tentative budget for District 4, MSTU with a fund total of $214,390. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval to set tentative millage rate for District 5, MSTU with a rollback rate of 0.0686, percentage of increase over rollback rate of negative 2.19 for a tentative millage rate of 0.0671. Second. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval for a tentative budget for District 5, MSTU with a fund total of $370,000. Second. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Move approval to set tentative millage for Special District A-61, Hutchinson Island, MSTU, with a rollback rate of 0.1682, percentage of increase over rollback rate of 6.96 for a tentative millage rate of 0.1799. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for Special District A-61, Hutchinson Island, MSTU, with a fund total of $422,100. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval to set tentative millage for Fire Rescue, MSTU, unincorporated, with a rollback rate of 2.3732, percentage of increase over rollback rate of 11.14 for a tentative millage rate of 2.6376. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval for tentative budget for Fire Rescue, MSTU, unincorporated, with a fund total of $85,521,704. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval to set tentative millage for MSTU Parks and Recreation, with a rollback rate of 0.1397, percentage of increase over rollback rate of 5.51 for a tentative millage rate of 0.1474. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of tentative budget for Taxing Authority, MSTU, Parks and Recreation, with a fund total of $4,365,644. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval to set tentative millage for countywide MSTU, unincorporated, stormwater, and road maintenance, with a rollback rate of 0.5118, percentage of increase over rollback rate of 11.80, for a tentative millage rate of 0.5722. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of tentative budget for countywide MSTU, unincorporated, stormwater, and road maintenance, with a fund total of $15,304,114. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for general unincorporated fund, with a fund total of $8,131,820. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for building and permitting, with a fund total of $11,400,751. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of tentative budget for impact fees, $4,963,984. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for special revenue, with a fund total of $32,026,409. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of tentative budget for grants, with a fund total of $2,396,033. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for other debt service, with a fund total of $8,324,667. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for other capital projects, with a fund total of $34,021,127. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for utilities enterprise, with a fund total of $124,046,350. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for solid waste enterprise, with a fund total of $48,702,621. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for airport enterprise, with a fund total of $3,032,863. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for golf course enterprise, with a fund total of $3,798,000. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for internal service funds, with a fund total of $46,428,736. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for trust, with a fund total of $80,000. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? Opposed. That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. Move approval of a tentative budget for community redevelopment area trust, with a fund total of $9,903,972. Second. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes 4-1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. That is the end of my... Do we have any further duties tonight? Just want to remind you all that we'll be back here in less than two weeks for the final reading on September 23rd at 5.05 p.m. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else, Commissioners? We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned. We are adjourned.