September 11th public hearing for the 2324 budget we're down to three just so you know Commissioner Santiago's husband was just taken to the emergency room she won't be joining us tonight but we do have a quorum we do have enough to get some business done so yes sir mr. Beasley actually mr. chair I will handle the first items a 1 through a 10 are your public hearings for the final rate resolutions for special assessments these will be presented by deputy county attorney Sandy Howard good evening Sandra Howard for the county attorney's office if you'll recall back on June 20th of this year the board adopted certain tentative rate resolutions for the fiscal year 2324 special assessments the adoption of these final rate resolutions presented this evening following a public hearing is the final step in the process to place the assessments on the 2023 tax bill accordingly there will be no further hearings on this matter and the rates set by these resolutions and adopted tonight will be final so first we have item a1 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution for the fiscal year 2324 street lighting assessments the proposed assessments are determined by calculating the projected electric costs maintenance charges and administrative expenses for each assessment area the proposed assessments for all street lighting assessment areas are set out in the proposed resolution the county's attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final rate resolutions for the 2324 street lighting assessments this is a public hearing we get over to public hearing for each item any questions this is a public hearing anyone who wishes to speak on this matter please come forward say nobody will close the public hearing and resolution got a motion a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign passes thank you item a2 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution for the skyview utility municipal services benefit unit for fiscal year 2324 the msbu was created to reimburse the costs over a 20 year period for the capital improvements made to the potable water and wastewater systems for the skyview area so they may be incorporated in the city of lakeland utility systems in accordance with a court order the cost of the capital improvements are apportioned on a per equivalent residential connection basis the proposed assessment for a single family residence is 95 dollars and 28 cents the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final assessment resolution for the skyview utility msbu for fiscal year 2324 any questions see none we'll open a public hearing anyone who wishes to speak on this matter please come forward see a nobody will close the public hearing motion for approval second got a motion and a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion passes thank you item a3 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution for the island club west utility msbu for fiscal year 2324 the msbu is created to reimburse the costs over a 30-year period for the capital improvements to the potable water reclaim water and wastewater systems for the island club west development so they may be incorporated in the county systems in accordance with a court order the proposed assessment for each parcel is 200.88 the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final assessment resolution for the island club west utility msbu for the fiscal year 2023-24 any questions cnn we'll open a public hearing anyone who wishes to speak on this matter please come forward see a nobody will close the public hearing option of the final rate resolution second got a motion and a second all in favor say aye opposed like sign motion passes thank you item a4 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution resolution for the east bimini bay utility msbu for fiscal year 2324 the msbu was created to reimburse the costs over a 30-year period for the capital improvements to the potable water reclaimed water and wastewater systems for the developed portion of the bimini bay development so they may be incorporated in the county systems in accordance with a court order the proposed assessment for each parcel is 319.82 the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final assessment resolution for the east bimini bay utility msbu for fiscal year 2324 any questions seeing none we'll open a public hearing if you want to speak on this matter please come forward seeing them we'll close the public hearing motion motion for approval second got a motion in a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion passes thank you item a5 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution for fiscal year 2324 fire services assessments the assessments levied fund the fire rescue budget and allow polk county to provide essential fire rescue services to the citizens within the fire service district the recommended rates for the 2023-24 fire service assessments are set out in the proposed resolution the proposed rates are based on a single family residence assessment of 268 dollars the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final rate resolution for the 2023-24 fire services assessments questions seeing none we'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward seeing nobody we'll close the public hearing adoption motion in a second all in favor say aye aye those like sign motion passes thank you item a6 is to request the board adopt the final assessment resolution for nuisance abatement assessments for fiscal year 2324 pursuant to polk county ordinance 08-047 the county has undertaken a program to improve various properties throughout the unincorporated area of the county by requiring the abatement of certain nuisances and for the property owner to reimburse the county for the cost of abatement the parcels on the proposed rule are for those parcels in which the property owner has failed to reimburse the county the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final assessment resolution for nuisance abatement assessments for fiscal year 2023-24 any questions then we'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward seeing nobody will close the public hearing motion in a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion passes thank you item a7 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution for the 2023-24 residential waste program services assessments the assessments collected fund residential waste program services the recommended rates for fiscal year 23 24 are 144.50 for collection 62 dollars for disposal of the first cart 52.50 for disposal of a second cart county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the final rate resolution for fiscal year 2023-24 any questions you know we'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward seeing none we'll close the public hearing bring it back for a motion somebody second got a motion in a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion passes thank you item a8 is to request the board adopt the final assessment resolution for excessive bulk waste assessments for fiscal year 2023-24 pursuant to polk county ordinance 18-016 the county has undertaken a program to collect excessive bulk waste after giving notice to the property owner the parcels on the proposed rule are for those parcels in which the property owner has failed to reimburse the county for the cost of collection and disposal of the excessive bulk waste the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final assessment resolution for excessive bulk waste assessments for fiscal year 2023-24 any questions seeing none we'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward see no one we'll close the public hearing bring it back for a vote approval second get a motion a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries thank you item a9 is to request the board adopt the final rate resolution for the southwest inwood street lighting msbu for fiscal year 23-24 the msbu was created to reimburse the cost of capital improvements electric maintenance and administrative costs for street lighting in the southwest inwood assessment area the costs are apportioned on a per equivalent residential unit basis the proposed assessment for a single family residence in msbu is 64.68 the county attorney's office recommends the board adopt the proposed final assessment resolution for the southwest inwood street lighting msbu for fiscal year 23-24 questions seeing none we'll open a public hearing on this matter if you want to speak come forward seeing none we'll close the public hearing bring back for a vote motion for approval second motion in a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign there's nobody left so it's approved okay my final item does not require a public hearing it's to request the board designate me sandra howard as deputy county attorney to certify the 2023-24 final assessment rules to the tax collector so moved the certification is required by september 15th in case you were wondering it's pursuant to a statute but i won't read which one second all right you got a motion in a second all in favor say aye all right those like saying congratulations thank you mr chair at this time we'll go into section b the purpose of a public hearing hearings are primarily for the purpose of explaining the budget proposed tax levy and any proposed amendments as well as affording the public the opportunity to participate in the budget process and i will turn it over to mr beasley for his budget presentation at this time mr chair members of the board and members of our viewing audience that these past 12 months continue to reflect some extraordinary times i think both at the national level and for many local governments across the country many in our local florida communities continue to experience what i think is unprecedented challenges to address growth demands supply chain disruptions labor shortages and inflationary impacts throughout this journey i believe polk county government here in polk county florida continues to be a stabilizing factor in providing essential and routine services to businesses and citizens alike i wanted to express my sincere appreciation to the men and women of the county staff to all the constitutional officers to the state court system and to the medical examiner's office all of those agencies and all of those staff members have again worked cooperatively over the past six months in helping to prepare their respective portions of the proposed fyi 2324 budget let me also say thanks to those citizens who have directly or indirectly participated in helping to shape this budget by serving on citizens advisory committees participating in public hearings making phone calls sending emails or through other social media contacts i assure you those voices have been heard preparing a reasonable budget that truly reflects our community's needs and significant board priorities is a challenging process under normal circumstances as we put this covet era in the past and as we continue to experience significant community growth our goal in serving the citizens of and the visitors to polk county has not and will but will not be diminished the fy 2324 proposed budget totals two billion five hundred and forty nine million eight hundred and three thousand two hundred and fifty nine dollars this budget reflects a three percent reduction in the countywide and unincorporated tax millage rates as directed by the board of county commissioners this budget reflects receipt of and continued community distribution of various federal and state funds associated with our community development block grant program our emergency solutions grant funds our home investment partnership funds the emergency rental assistance program funds and the american rescue plan investment funds as well as the state housing and investment partnership funds in keeping with the board's priority commitment to public safety this board this budget reflects a five percent indexing over the current fire assessment fee this budget will also allocate almost 25 million dollars of one-time funds to address capital projects directed towards public safety transportation and facility asset management responsibilities this budget will reinstate the fy 2122 waste and recycling collection assessment fee to better reflect a more normalization of service delivery expectations consistent with board policy this budget maintains a general fund operating reserve at its highest possible level which i believe continues to reflect very positively on polk county's fiscal solvency and financial health this budget maintains the board's commitment to public safety and public health by way of adding critical positions and maintaining current priority programs and services this budget maintains the board's commitment on needed capital infrastructure to support public safety public health public health public water supplies transportation capacity and intersection improvements storm water management and water quality improvements as well as environmental stewardship as approved by the polk county voters in november of 2022 this budget reflects the full 0.2 millage assigned to the new 20-year environmental lands management program this budget continues to address quality of life issues that relate to affordable housing behavioral health recreation leisure services economic development as well as medicaid contributions this budget will continue to make investments in technology upgrades in order to improve operational efficiencies and strengthen system security protocols and finally but equally important this budget continues to invest in our employees by the way of a five percent phase salary beginning for salary increase beginning in october of this year also for employees participating in our health insurance program there will be no increase in participating premiums for the second consecutive year mr chair members of the board mr christia johnson who's the head of our budget management services director office has a brief powerpoint i wanted christia to kind of walk the board through a few highlights that are associated with our budget i think this will help explain to our viewing audience the components that make up our budget some of the factors that are involved in accounting for both the revenues and the expenses of our budget as well as some prior year comparisons and when christia finishes i'd like to kind of end in some closing comments please christia please good evening commissioners i want to start off with just some of the key takeaways from the fiscal year 20 23 24 budget for the very first time our total all-inclusive budget has surpassed the 2.5 billion dollar mark but i do want to point out that that that's only a 4.6 percent increase over the current year fiscal year 22 23 budget in total the general fund totals 576.4 million which is only a 2.3 percent increase over the current year general fund budget uh the countywide property value increase over current year was 15.86 percent that that that's attributed to both new construction and the appreciation of existing properties on our tax roll this is the second year of double digit growth in a row and we haven't seen two consecutive consecutive years of double digit growth in 16 years so as a result of the property value growth as a way to offset some of that impact on our residents the board adopted a three percent millage decrease through this budget process this is the second year in a row that the millage has been decreased by three percent so again that three percent decrease that also includes the addition of the 0.2 mills for environmental land and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a few slides as mr beasley pointed out there's a five percent indexing to the fire assessment this is the third year in a row that that's been included in the budget and the waste collection assessment was reset to the fiscal year 21 22 rate of 206 50 in total the one-time reduction in the current year was implemented in response to the chronic service disruptions that were experienced by many of our residents this chart reflects the decisions that were made by the board during the august 16th cip meeting to invest the one-time money available in some priority projects uh... to 20 24.8 million dollars was allocated to projects such as the north lakeland government center property acquisition the south county jail security system replacement and the eagle lake fire station replacement just to name a few so this slide takes a look at our budgeted revenue from millage it compares the current year adopted budget in the white column to the fiscal year 23 24 proposed tentative budget in the green column with the gray column showing the difference between the two so you can see that the county-wide um millage rate in the current year was composed of three different uh components the general fund the emergency medical millage and the transportation millage um the the total county-wide millage current year uh totaled six point six nine two zero mils and then with the addition of the point two mils in fiscal year 23 24 the board reduced that total millage rate by three percent but the entire reduction was taken from the general fund component and the emergency medical transportation and environmental lands components were not affected on the unincorporated mst use each one of those millage rates was reduced by three percent and as i said this is the second year in a row that a three percent millage rate has been um put into place the proposed tentative budget is balanced revenues to expenses and it's broken down between six major fund groups each of which is also balanced revenues to expenses the largest category is special revenue funds which makes up close to half of the total budget um the revenues that go into special revenue funds are from specific sources and have to be utilized for specific uses and so we have to account for them as such the biggest piece of that goes towards transportation that's about twenty four percent indigent health care makes up about fourteen percent of that pie slice with about twelve percent in impact fees and eleven percent going to public safety the general fund is the next largest slice and we're going to talk a little bit more about the general fund in this in a few slides that makes up close to a quarter of the total budget the next largest piece is going to be the enterprise funds that split almost exactly down the middle between utilities and waste and recycling next we have internal service funds that's fleet i.t and employee health insurance these are programs that provide goods and services to other county divisions and then are reimbursed for those as as such next we look at the capital funds these are the general capital projects in accordance with our cip policy these are facilities asset projects for the most part and those one-time funds that you allocated pretty much all of that went into the general capital fund finally the smallest piece is debt service funds these are resources for the repayment of long-term debt that aren't associated with the enterprise funds so for instance the utilities bonds are located within the enterprise funds not in the debt service funds so we came before you on july 18th and presented the proposed budget so since that date the divisions finalized their cip budgets and they completed what we call a true up exercise where they take a look at what they've spent during the current year and what they think they're going to spend by the end of the current fiscal year and funds that they don't believe that they're going to be able to spend they need to carry those forward into the next budget process so this is a normal exercise and we normally do see some increases during this period because they've realized that they do need to carry those funds forward and will be unable to spend them current year so to take a look through the major fund groups and see the changes that occurred in the general fund the difference is pretty small this is primarily just money that needed to be carried forward about 250 000 of that 300 000 was carried forward then the other fifty thousand dollars which was the for the establishment of the new inwood street lighting district uh the largest dollar amount falls under the special revenue funds so there were a number of grants that we didn't know at the time of the proposed that we were going to be awarded so um during that period those grants were put in um there were a couple of generator replacement grants as well as an off-highway vehicle grant the rest of that um increase in the special revenue funds is actually attributed to hurricane ian if you remember hurricane ian hit us at the end of september last year we had already adopted the the budget and we were just a couple days from being in the new fiscal year so behind the scenes there's a lot that goes on within the divisions and in coordinating with fema so we've been working with fema during this time and we put together different projects that were going for reimbursement so after the proposed budget we finally gotten to a point where we feel like we have some realistic numbers and we feel like about 32 and a half million is what we can expect realistically to receive and reimbursement for fema for damages that we incurred that we've already had to pay for so this is just a reimbursement it's a long drawn out process and it takes a while to get that money so that's that's the major increase since the proposed in the capital funds that's the largest percentage increase and that is attributed 100 to carry forward the divisions took a look at their projects and they determined that there was money that they weren't going to be able to spend before the end of this fiscal year and they rolled it forward so it's it's just as simple as reassessing what their actual spending is going to be between now and the end of the fiscal year finally there's a slight increase in the enterprise funds as as you're aware we are attempting to sell the roar home and divest that asset originally we thought that that was going to happen early in the next fiscal year but it looks like it's going to be a little bit later on at and in the proposed budget we budgeted for three months of operations and to kind of give us more of a cushion we actually extended that to six months worth of operations so that increase is just providing that cushion to continue operations as as long as necessary it was not it's only a part of that 472 correct correct six months how much is that um it was about 800 000 to continue for three months for three months that's three months worth of operations 1.6 then is in there as it stands right now um you said it was three you doubled it yes so it'd be 1.6 now yes okay yes that's correct of the 472 yes the the rest of that 472 is split between utilities and waste and recycling uh roar home is just a tiny tiny little slipper so drilling down into just the general fund component of the budget when we look at the total proposed general fund budget um in light of the total budget it's about 23 percent um that's the same percentage as current year that's um that's fairly normal historically that percentage has been more in the 24 to 25 percent range but the last couple of years we've had an unprecedented influx of both federal and state monies those monies don't go into the general fund so as a percentage that pie slice is just a little bit smaller and we anticipate that within the next few years it's going to return to that historical 24 to 25 percent so when we talk about the general fund um earlier we were talking about the total general fund the 576.4 million but about 18 percent of that is already designated to commitments and obligations through interfund transfers and reserves so we want to peel those back and take that out and we're left with what we call the operating budget that's about 474.7 million dollars that's really what we're anticipating spending on um running the services of the county within the general fund christia yes will those uh the transfers and the reserves will they show up again somewhere else in the budget yes they're in the total budget um so they show up here in general fund but they're also going to show up somewhere else you're transferring that 35 million 66 yes if we're transferring money out of the general fund then that that's an expense to the general fund and then it's a revenue in the other fund so it's always balanced uh the the the transfers are always going to be balanced revenue to expense wherever they're going so to break this down and look at the operating expense budget and then the revenue that covers it we wanted to break it down and show you both sides together on the revenue side ad valorem makes up about 60 percent of the operating budget then we have other taxes that makes up 24 percent that's sales tax public service tax state revenue sharing communication services tax and local business tax that those are all of the the different funding sources that go into other taxes charges and fees about two-thirds of that is made up of ambulance fees other than that we have about 15 percent in sheriff and court fees and then it's broken down between a variety of other types of charges and fees for services code enforcement land development probation building expect inspections and so forth then other revenue that's really everything else we have indirect funds we have um interest parking garage revenue scrap sales donations rents all all those other miscellaneous type revenues that that go into that category then when we look at the expense side the sheriff's request makes up about 50 percent of the operating budget with uh the funding for the other constitutionals making up another nine percent we have some mandates that we have to that we have to pay for the um inmate outside medical is a is a chunk of that we also have to pay for the cras the medical examiner article 5 court technology indigent burials and various other items so once all that's pulled out that leaves us about one-third of that money for funding bocc programs that are either fully or partially funded out of the general fund about one-third of that actually goes into public safety then 14 percent to facilities and about 12 percent to board and general county administration so then all the rest of that is divided between all the divisions that receive some portion of their funding out of the general fund so a metric that we that we look at are the general fund days of operating reserves so about 86 percent of the reserves that are in the general fund are considered operating revenues operating reserves i'm sorry and would be available for emergency use if if necessary so what we do is we compare those reserves against the general fund operating budget that we just looked at and its board policy to maintain between 42 and 45 days of operating expense in these reserves in the fiscal year 23 24 budget the daily rate comes out to not quite 1.3 million dollars per day we're fully funded at the extent of that policy for the third year in a row at 45 days this indicates good fiscal stewardship and planning on the part of the board this shows that we have excellent financial solvency and we are well prepared in case of emergency or unforeseen circumstances um this is also something that rage rating agencies look at if we're going out for a bond issue this reflects very well on us so we're just going to give a quick high level overview of the cip as i mentioned we had that meeting back in august on august 16th i believe and this chart shows the five-year cip rolling budget in total over the course of the five years that budget comes to about 1.2 billion dollars of course we know that a lot of these projects span multiple years so we don't budget for all of those expenses in the first year so we have about 476 million of this five-year budget that's actually budgeted in fiscal year 23 24 so your 2.5 billion dollar budget includes 476 million in cip projects new positions within this budget with the rural home expected to sell during this upcoming fiscal year we had the opportunity to offset new headcount by reclassifying these vacant positions that aren't going to be refilled so during the budget process mr beasley was presented with the different division budgets and he identified certain needs that were pressing and that that really needed to be dealt with current year so of 38 positions in the rural home that were slated for elimination now like i said we did budget six months for some personnel but there were 38 positions that were that were going away he identified 14 different positions that were necessary current year and told the divisions to go ahead and reclass those current year so as part of the budget process that leaves 24 eliminated positions and there were 31 new positions that he felt had legitimate merit to be included in this budget so in using those 24 positions to reclass against those new positions that gives us a net headcount increase of only seven in this budget you can see most of those new positions actually fall in the public safety and public and environmental health category with most of those being in waste and recycling as we take on the expansion of collection services within the county and then finally this slide shows how the county's headcount has changed over the past 16 years since the prior fiscal peak back in 07 08 so there are a lot of programs that over the years we we don't run anymore whether privatized whether they went away so they they're no longer under our purview but at the same time we have other programs that we run a lot more efficiently so using measured growth being able to leverage technology and just find ways to work smarter um we're still 15 positions below where we were 16 years ago and if you take a look at the chart down at the bottom of the slide you can see how the population has changed over the same time period so the population growth since 07 08 has actually been over 33 percent but yet the employees per thousand residents decreased by 25.5 percent from 3.84 employees per thousand in population to 2.86 employees per thousand population in the fiscal year 23 24 budget so that concludes my portion of the presentation this evening mr chair members of the board before we get into the portion of the agenda that is a very statutorily scripted uh requirement i wanted to just say a couple closing comments that the fy 23 24 proposed budget represents what i believe is a substantial investment on the part of the citizens of polk county while the public health focus has diminished in this post-covid era the increased demands born by continued county-wide growth remains a significant challenge for us this budget is expanding in direct relation to the service demands generated by continued substantial growth as evidenced by what i believe is a transitioning urban suburban environment from the more rural environments of the past this growth dynamic continues to drive citizen expectations regarding the types of service we provide the quality of those services and the cost of those services and finally i wanted to say thanks to the board this board has been providing needed policy guidance and and then also allowing staff to think creatively in developing the budget and more so for having the confidence in the staff to rise to the level and rise to the occasion of what i think is unprecedented growth that has happened here in polk county over the last four or five years the fy 23 24 proposed budget is put forth as a what i believe is a reasonable budget to address reasonable citizen expectations the proposed budget i think truly is a formal expression of our plans our goals and our objectives for the upcoming year and is truly a reflection of the services that we promise the citizens of polk county so mr chair members of the board you know on behalf of the county staff on behalf of the constitutional officers and and of those related agencies that are a part of our budget uh we as a group collectively present to this board and to the general public the fy 23 24 balanced budget what i'll do is i'll let christia walk through the statutorily required uh narratives on the millage rates as well as the the the revenues associated with those millage rates to represent our budget so christia please thank you can i ask you one question though i didn't hear the amount on the general fund the dollar amount that goes to transportation i know you said 576 was the uh the general fund amount but i was trying to figure out how much that is and if there's i don't guess there's any kind of restrictions on that it just goes to whatever the needs are in transportation and drainage i don't know that there's much in the general fund that would be going to transportation there is some that goes into drainage that's that's in the general fund but um i can get back to you and see if there's anything that is that is uh beyond just the drainage portion i think there would be actually there is an amount but that's okay probably a very small amount within the general fund but i can i can get that number and get it to you well really what i'm trying to get at though is uh the ad valorem dollars that that go into transportation there isn't oh the ad valorem dollars that go into transportation um yes the 1.2 mils that goes into transportation that is a portion of the county-wide millage rate uh that revenue for 2324 is actually 67.9 million 67.9 and what is the uh total gas tax revenue forecast for uh 2324 i don't know that right off the top of my head okay but we can get that number that'd be fine maybe able to to look it up real quick that'll be fine thanks all right go ahead i'm sorry go ahead oh yes sir um so under statute there's a lot of items that i'm required to read into the record so bear with me as i go through the next couple sections i i do have to uh read in a lot of data um so at this portion we discussed the proposed tentative millage rates for fiscal year 2324 and first we discussed the fiscal year 2324 board of county commissioners proposed tentative operating millage rate so while we break out these components of the county-wide millage rate into transportation and emergency medical environmental lands we do that for discussion purposes internally but from the state's perspective we report that as one number so for that purpose i'm not going to read all of the detail i'm just going to hit the totals on on this chart because that's all that i'm required by statute to read in so for the fiscal year 2324 county-wide proposed tentative operating millage rates the fiscal year 2223 adopted county-wide millage rate is 6.6920 and the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 6.6852 mills that's a difference of negative 0.0068 mills that's a reduction of 0.10 percent so the fiscal year 2324 rolled back rate which is the millage rate that we would need to adopt this year in order to bring in the same amount of revenue as we did in the prior year that would be 6.077 mills county-wide the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 6.6852 mills and that's a difference of 0.6075 mills and that's a 10 percent increase from the rolled back rate on the revenue side the rolled back rate would generate 361 million eight hundred and seventy three thousand two hundred and ninety nine dollars in revenue the proposed fiscal fiscal year 2324 revenue within the budget is 398 million 44 thousand five hundred and fifty three dollars that's a difference of 36 million 171 thousand two hundred and fifty four dollars and that's an increase of 10 percent over the rolled back rate the increase over the rolled back rate is necessary to maintain services within the funds that this levy applies to next we discussed the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate for the polk county parks municipal services taxing unit the polk county library municipal services taxing unit the polk county stormwater municipal services taxing unit and the polk county rancho bonito municipal services taxing unit i do have to read all of the detail on this one so please bear with me it is it is a lot so the current year fiscal year 2223 adopted millage rate for the parks mstu is 0.5450 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 0.5286 mills mills that's a decrease of 0.0164 mills that's a decrease of 0.0164 mills and that is a 3.01 percent decrease over the um over the adopted millage rate the library mstu fiscal year 2223 adopted millage rate was 0.2046 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 0.1985 mills is 0.1985 mills that's a reduction of 0.0061 mills and that's a 3 percent reduction from the current year millage rate the stormwater mstu fiscal year 2223 adopted millage rate is 0.0970 millage rate is 0.0991 mills that's a reduction of 0.0029 mills which is a three percent reduction from the current year adopted millage rate the rancho benito area mstu the fiscal year 2223 adopted millage rate is 9.1272 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 9.1272 mills millage rate for fiscal year 2223 is 9.9738 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate millage rate is 9.948 millage rate is 9.948 mills that's a total reduction of 0.0254 mills which is a 0.3 percent reduction over the current year the rolled back rate for the parks mstu is 0.948 mills is 0.4940 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 0.5286 mills that's a difference of 0.0346 mills and that's an increase of seven percent over the rolled back rate the library mstu rolled back rate is 0.1855 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 0.1985 mills that's a difference of 0.0130 mills and that is a seven percent increase from the rollback the stormwater mstu rollback rate the stormwater mstu rollback rate is 0.0879 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 0.0941 mills that's a difference of 0.0062 mills and that is a 7.1 percent increase over the rollback rate the unincorporated total rolled back rate the unincorporated total rolled back rate is 0.7674 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 0.8212 mills that's a difference of 0.0538 mills and that is a seven percent increase from the rollback rate on the revenue side the rolled back rate revenue for the parks mstu is 17 million one hundred and christian yes i believe you we skipped you did the oh i'm sorry and then do the rancho benito and then the total for all okay i'm sorry thank you for letting me know all right thank you the the rancho benito the fiscal area rolled back rate is 8.9432 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 9.1272 mills that's a difference of 0.1840 mills and that's a 2.1 percent increase over the rollback rate in total the rollback rate for all mstus is 9.7106 mills the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate is 9.9484 mills that's a difference of 0.2378 mills which is a 2.5 percent increase over the rollback rate on the revenue side i'm sorry confirm our document i has a 2.4 increase is that yeah that's what we have i'm sorry that is a 2.4 percent increase from the rollback rate and you were doing so good yeah now i've just fallen apart so for the revenue the the rolled back rate would generate for the parks mstu 17 million 151 621 dollars the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate for the parks mstu generates 18 million 352 thousand 900 929 dollars that's a difference of one million two hundred and one thousand three hundred and eight dollars which is a seven percent increase from the rollback rate the rolled back rate for the library mstu would generate six million four hundred and forty thousand five hundred and thirty eight dollars the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate for the library mstu generates six million eight hundred and ninety one thousand eight hundred and ninety six dollars that's a difference of four hundred and fifty one thousand three hundred and fifty eight dollars which is a seven percent increase from the rollback rate for the stormwater mstu the rolled back rate would generate three million fifty one thousand eight hundred and seventy eight dollars the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate for the stormwater mstu generates three million two hundred and sixty seven thousand one hundred and forty one dollars that's a difference of two hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and sixty three dollars which is a seven point one percent increase from the rolled back rate the unincorporated total revenue under the rolled back rate is 26 million six hundred and forty four thousand and thirty seven dollars the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate for the unincorporated area generates 28 million five hundred and eleven thousand nine hundred and sixty six dollars that's a difference of one million eight hundred and sixty seven thousand nine hundred and twenty nine dollars which is a seven percent increase from the rolled back rate in the rancho bonito area the rollback rate generates nine thousand one hundred and forty two dollars the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate generates nine thousand nine thousand three hundred and thirty dollars in the rancho rancho bonito mstu that's a difference of one hundred and eighty eight dollars and that's a two point one percent increase from the rolled back rate the total for all of the mstu's under the rolled back rate the revenue is 26 million six hundred and fifty three thousand one hundred and seventy nine dollars the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative millage rate generates 28 thousand five hundred and twenty one thousand two hundred and ninety six dollars just correct i think that's 28 million i'm sorry eight thousand twenty eight million twenty eight million five hundred and twenty one thousand two hundred and ninety six dollars that's a difference of one million eight hundred and sixty eight thousand one hundred and seventeen dollars which is a seven percent increase from the rollback rate the increase over the rolled back rate is necessary to maintain services within the parks library and rancho bonito mstu funds and to fund upcoming water quality projects and other services related to the npd es permit as mandated by the federal clean water act in the stormwater mstu neil well on the rancho bonito is there any restrictions at all on how that money is spent or do we just it just goes into the general fund and we um no it's it's set aside into a special revenue fund and it was set up primarily for the purpose of providing law enforcement services in the right in the ranch in the rancho bonito area only it can only be spent within the rancho bonito area well then how do we have any on hand or we depleted we spent out this year so far we do have some money on hand i don't know exactly what that number is but i can have somebody find out what do we do we just give that to the sheriff when they ask the sheriff makes a request okay and then we we look it up to find out how much money is available and then um we we process a check to the sheriff for for that money you know that it's come to our attention some time ago that some lots in there have sold have 300 owners and have sold for a hundred thousand dollars i wonder if that's the comp and if so then uh it looks like we'd be generating a lot more than ten thousand dollars huh commissioner we looked at that and it is not the comp we've worked with property appraiser's office attempt to use that those as comps and what we've been told is that that's not the uh proper comps to use so we have tried that but i would tell you those aren't the comps that are being used at this time yeah the other question i have is on the uh parks uh we're looking at 18 million 352 is that a hundred that's not a hundred percent of the parks budget i'm looking at gay but so there's other revenue that comes in there yes they receive um charges and fees for use of um park properties um they they have they have a number of other revenue sources as well as money in reserves that carries forward so this is only a portion of their total budget okay um i always think that's underfunded but the next question is libraries and it's going up by 451 358 dollars do we look at that or did it and and make any decision about where we need to be or we just whatever the millage rate produces that's what we divvy up between those in the cooperative it's it's what's generated yeah you set the millage rate the property value is x the math comes out to that much money so that that's what becomes available that you're asking about well yeah i mean there's 450 000 additional uh i don't know if that's the right number um if and maybe this isn't the time to look at it but maybe for uh fy 24 25 look and see what's going on over there i guess we can adjust that but i know there's some kind of an agreement with the uh with the cooperators on mr company we do communicate with gladys is here gladys we we do talk to the uh library co-op about capital investments um technology investments and those are fund sources that do just that and the city's put some money in that too yes sir this is this is mstu for the unincorporated polk county though this this six uh i mean we're spending seven million dollars there but i know there's more money in parks so i don't know that it's apples to apples but if you look at it we'd be spending seven million dollars almost for libraries and 18 million dollars for the entire parks and recreation but we know there's other revenue i don't know how significant that other revenue is if it's five million or 25 million um well i don't think when it comes to fees you know ten dollar registration fee it'd take a lot of them to amount to you know a few million we could give you a breakdown on all of those revenues i can tell you from what's right in front of me the total parks mstu fund budget is uh 40.8 million and the total library mstu fund budget is um 8.9 million but that would include reserves and um you know money that they're not necessarily looking to spend but we we could provide a breakdown very easily you good yeah all right more way at d yes so uh discuss proposed tentative budget for fiscal year 2324 section d1 discuss the fiscal year 2324 proposed tentative budget totaling two billion five hundred and forty seven million eight hundred and three thousand two hundred and fifty nine dollars section d2 discuss the fiscal year 2324 polk county parks mstu proposed tentative budget totaling forty million seven hundred and sixty five thousand five hundred and forty eight of which seventeen million four hundred and thirty five thousand two hundred and eighty three dollars is from property tax i'm sorry that's i'll say that that's not that's not the right number i'm sorry of which eighteen million three hundred and fifty two thousand nine hundred and twenty nine dollars is from property tax the polk county library mstu proposed tentative budget totaling eight million eight hundred and ninety seven thousand nine hundred and fifty six dollars of which six million eight hundred and ninety one thousand eight hundred and ninety six dollars is from property tax the polk county stormwater mstu proposed tentative budget totaling twelve million three hundred and twenty seven thousand four hundred and ninety three dollars of which three million two hundred and sixty seven thousand one hundred and forty one dollars is from property tax and the polk county rancho benito mstu proposed tentative budget totaling sixty five thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars of which nine thousand three hundred and thirty dollars is from property taxes mr chairman yes i don't want to be a nitpicker here but i think a hundred percent of that's probably from property tax but again you said it's in reserves or been carried over so so the three million say 267 for stormwater will be from fy 23 24 property tax because correct the others from property tax as well um yes it but in this budget it's not right that's trying to get property clarification that there's not uh some other income you know coming from somewhere else that that uh you know people would not understand them and i wouldn't understand it because you said a block of that is carried over it's in reserves yes it carries forward but we don't call it for this purpose we would call it like a carry forward revenue in this budget in this budget the property tax revenue is the new property tax revenue coming in so even if the carry forward was generated by property tax in this forum we're we're only speaking of what's coming in new right any other questions questions before we go to the public hearing all right we'll open a public hearing on fy 23 24 proposed tentative budget millage rates uh requests from the public to speak regarding fy 23 24 proposed tentative operating budget millage rates which includes parks mstu library mstu stormwater mstu and rancho bonito as mstu so this is if you're here uh as a member of the public to speak now is your time i've got a list of four people so far if you'll just come to the center mike line up mike kindest keenest uh tony starts with a v after that julissa boyd george christensen if you guys will just go ahead and line up so we can move right through this pull the mic down and give us your name and address please name is michael keenest i'm 617 oak avenue in eagle lake and again i'm here of course to talk about the millage rate i got a little education when i came in here because i didn't quite understand it but i'm a little bit more clear on it now but basically i urge you not to vote for the new millage rate increase and stay with last year's budget based on the millage rate and the reason i say that is uh not only it's not a huge rate increase that you're talking about but when you add that up with all the other aspects of the property tax here there's a lot a large increase myself particularly i did some calculating here and from my property tax from last year to this year if you go with the proposed budget increases it's 57 percent increase in my property tax uh and 37 percent if you go with the last year's budget and and that is extremely high for me i'm retired on a fixed social security income and like many people here i doubt if anybody had a 57 57 percent increase in their paycheck or social security so uh i urge you not to vote for this in increase or at least not as much because it's it's going to hurt people like me very much if we get to pay that along with all the other increases in all the other aspects of of this property tax so again please vote for no neil has a question what i do i'm trying to understand the 57 percent increase is that because the assessed values increased or because obviously the millage actually is decreasing so um yeah the the property tax and and other aspects from what another lady told me when i came in here all the different categories on the property tax here a lot of them have increased greatly but i guess you're just uh here talking about the top line which is the your your millage rate but like i say once you add your increase along with all the other increases that are line by line it it really adds up so less and less increase on your end is going to make my life a little bit easier and i would appreciate that thank you randy yes i was just don't mention i think he he got it that it's the other other taxes that's that's adding an increase because we're currently proposing a decrease yeah thank you thank you uh tony maybe t-o-n-i uh julissa julisa go ahead and pull the mic down name and address please uh julisa boy i live in i live at 413 june avenue in haynes city florida and i'm just like the other guy said trying to understand all of this um increase it's not easy i'll tell you that yeah it's confusing crease i'm a first time home buyer and um last year um when i moved in the house i guess it was based on the previous owner um the tax rates and all the assessment with the new assessment with the value of the home increasing um i'm just trying to filter all this through but the moral of the story is all of these increased rates is just basically driving me to work more i'm a single parent with four children and basically i own a business and i work as a nurse so i'm just basically trying to keep up with demand and the property taxes but i will take the booklet and read over it when i get home to understand more of so of the property tax things and the short version is when you buy a property it's totally reassessed at a much higher value usually and that's your starting point and that's usually the sticker shock from what the previous owner paid to what you pay now i'm assuming you filed for homestead exemption yes i did okay all right yeah and i will also add chair as well is that depending on how long the person before them owned it yeah they may have saver house cap so you may have a huge difference between those which could be a surprise if you were looking at the previous owners yeah and i don't get a lot of tax breaks because i'm not disabled i haven't been in a home but three years so i don't get a lot of breaks just so i'm just trying to make sense out of this because the property taxes is outrageous i believe all right thank you george christian christian something like that yeah i i live in uh pull the microphone up a little bit we can hear you two four four pershing street in battle so when i moved in the previous owner what he told me the tax rate was not what i see here now what they were telling me now so it's a big difference you know so since me and my wife we are retired and i think it's a huge increase so i also applied for the home exemption so i request to have a some consideration yeah i mean that's the same as the lady before when you buy a new it's reassessed at the new value and that's where your tax rate begins and um that's not a our thing that's a state thing so um else to tell you the uh the save our homes was a constitutional amendment that tried to keep a lid on uh homeowners who'd been uh in their home for a while to keep from driving them out that was the idea behind it and actually was passed by the voters but once that house changes hands the the clock restarts and that values that it uh is currently assessed at is what you will pay on which is different than what they've been paying on uh we were looking at some numbers i can't remember i think there's one home in polk county that defers or uh has an exemption i guess i don't know what you would how you'd characterize it it's not deferred but well it's not he's never going to pay it it's never going to be paid so if you want to call it deferred but it's really not deferred but i think his one and a half million dollars he saves uh he she whatever it is the homeowner uh via the save our homes when that home sells instead of being assessed it or paying on 1.5 million it'll pay on three point million uh that next year because all that protection from the save our homes amendment goes away when you have a new buyer so yeah it's it's a great thing but you were probably counting on paying the same thing the other guy was paying thank you that's all on my list is there anybody else that wants to speak come on up thank you my name is ivan coronado i live in 1163 victoria lane north lakeland it was increased my my taxes as well it's not as much that like like it used to be last year but i want to claim i mean i want to ask him to you is because the place where i live is almost 2 000 feet deep in this street in victoria lane is a dirt road road we live in united states but nobody can fix that dirt road this is this the place it's not this h08 it's not this um community with other people who can able to fix the road so i'm asking to you because it's part of the city it's part of the county is to fix our road you want it is vitoria lane paved yeah because we pay taxes as well so we got almost eight neighbors eight neighbors but nobody can fix our it's in victoria lane and north lakeland where our transportation directors in the back jay jarvis he can talk to you about uh turn around and see the situation back there with his hand raised he can tell you all about it one thing uh and i don't know how often it gets utilized anymore but the county years ago put in a program where there could be an assessment for the eight homeowners on victoria lane and spread that over a period of time i don't know it when's the last time it's even been done but that process you're right there was a process but um and that was done for private roads and then there was a attorney general's opinion that basically says you cannot do that anymore you can't use the public taxing authority to do assessments for private roads yes sir so we haven't done them for a while actually this year those assessments fell off that was the last last year was the last year we did it um that was only to complete the ones that had done it i think they were like 20 years ago in which the county had done it is victoria a private road or a county maintained dirt road that's what i want to talk about um victoria lane is not a private road since the county give us a numbers in like 20 years ago they gave us a numbers on this street because they used to be only one row with a single number but since the the county of the city they give us a number to different two different houses it is becoming a public street so do me a favor talk to mr jarvis explain the situation to him because he's the guy who understands all this he can look at the road and make a determination and we can go from there i think we'll certainly consider it all right thank you so much anybody else going once going twice all right we'll close the public hearing and come back for setting the tentative millage rates all right if if i may answer a question from earlier on the gas taxes there's 36 million in gas taxes budgeted 36 million of ad valorem no there's 36 minutes the avalorum was i had it written down here 67 69 point 67.9 and then gas tax is an additional 36 million so we almost have twice as much avalorum going in as we do from the gas tax yes sir wow okay there was a time when we didn't have any property tax going in uh we had moved entirely to gas tax but then i come back that was when you had wagons on the roads too yeah christia christia go ahead for the next three sections i'm going to read the staff recommendation and then stand for the board to make a motion and approval so section f set the tentative millage rates for fiscal year 23 24. section f1 staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution establishing the tentative millage rate of 0.0941 mills for the polk county stormwater mstu which is a 7.1 percent increase over the rolled back rate of 0.0871 mills 0.0879 move adoption the resolution thank you we good all right we got a motion and a second all in favor say aye aye aye those like signing passes and that recommendation was for the 0.0879 mills for the record correct yes section f2 recommend staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution establishing the tentative operating millage rate of 6.6852 mills which is a 10 increase over the rollback rate of 6.0777 mills the tentative millage rate of 0.5286 mills for the polk county parks mstu which is a seven percent increase over the rolled back rate of 0.4940 mills the tentative millage rate of 8.945 mills for the polk county library mstu which is a seven percent increase over the rolled back rate of 0.1855 mills and the tentative millage rate of 9.1272 mills for the polk county rancho benito mstu which is a 2.1 percent increase over the rolled back rate of 8.9432 mills second and a motion a second for approval um all of their say aye aye those like sign motion chairman go ahead i thought i heard randy did you read the the uh 0.0879 that's the rollback rate the what we approved that's why i was just correcting that that is what was stated that you're right oh okay and i'm assuming the clerk's office that's what what you have for the motion yeah the the what i moved and we adopted is the point zero nine four one correct okay yep yep section g set the tentative budget for fiscal year 2324 g1 staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution adopting the fiscal year 2324 tentative budget of 12 million three hundred and twenty seven thousand four hundred and ninety three dollars for the polk county stormwater mstu which is included in the fiscal year 2324 tentative budget of two billion five hundred and forty seven million eight hundred and three thousand two hundred and fifty nine dollars moved option of resolution second got a motion and second for approval all in favor say aye aye those like sign motion carries g2 staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution adopting the tentative budget of two billion five hundred and forty seven million eight hundred and three thousand two hundred and fifty nine dollars the fiscal year 2324 tentative budget of forty million seven hundred and sixty five thousand five hundred and forty eight dollars for the polk county parks mstu the fiscal year 2324 tentative budget of eight million eight hundred and ninety seven thousand nine hundred and fifty six dollars for the polk county library mstu and the fiscal year 2324 tentative budget of two billion five hundred and forty seven million eight hundred and three thousand two hundred and fifty nine dollars motion for approval second and a motion is second for approval all in favor say aye aye those like sign motion carries section eight set the h set the fiscal year 2324 second public hearing date and time h1 staff recommends that the board set the date time and place for the public hearing to adopt a final millage rate and budget on september 18th 2023 at six o'clock pm in the commission board room approval staff recommendation motion a second for approval all in favor say aye aye all right those like sign motion carries christie you did a heck of a job you got anything else want to throw some just random numbers at us and see if we can just say numbers for a little while nobody else would know the difference yeah i i mean we're sitting here like hawks watching you read so it's it's you did a great job thank you mr beasley mr chair just real quick a map search on victoria lane and all the indication that's a private road of about uh 2 000 feet okay all right thanks randy anything no no sir you guys yep all right we're adjourned