An effort by Apopka city commissioners Wednesday to set a preliminary property tax rate was stymied by Commissioner Nadia Anderson, who said she couldn’t support hiking property taxes with a looming statewide vote that will ask residents whether they want to slash them.
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By state law, the commission needed a unanimous vote to pass the proposed tax hike that would increase the city’s tax revenue by about $6.6 million, or almost 32%, in the upcoming fiscal year.
With Anderson’s opposition, the city’s budget plans are now in turmoil, despite support from the four other members. Commissioners have to approve the rate by July 31 but have not set a date to revisit the issue.
With a November referendum on the ballot that could dramatically impact city tax revenue, Anderson said commissioners need to consider budget reductions rather than spending more. She raised questions about new positions in the budget, including a chief of staff within the mayor’s office and a public information director. Budget documents show the new positions would cost $3.6 million.
“A lot of cities are bracing themselves … and have hiring freezes,” she said. “I just think right now we just have it all wrong, and we need to go back to the drawing board and really, really look at what’s essential.”
The City of Orlando, for example, announced a hiring freeze Monday, worried about the impacts of the November vote, which could slash property tax collections by local governments.
But Mayor Nick Nesta said it made sense for Apopka to bring in more money this year given the possible ramifications of what could happen in November.
“I think it’s a very, very bad idea to reduce this,” he said. “We need to be setting high right now and get the services the residents need this year, because after that, it’s the wild, wild west.”
He also noted that the city’s proposed tax rate is higher than what officials expect to approve during a final vote in September. But approving a higher rate now gives staff more time to finalize the budget. And by state law, commissioners can lower a preliminarily approved rate but face challenges raising it.
“This is not final, it never was final, it was never presented as a final budget, but it is starting to get more and more close to final,” Nesta said.
The proposal that Anderson rejected was to raise the rate to 5.1876 mills, each mill equaling $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. That’s an increase of .75 mills from the current rate. Nesta said his goal is to end up at 4.9376 mills, which is .5 mills higher.
Under that rate a property owner would pay about $493 for every $100,000 of assessed value — about $50 more than the current rate. That could mean property tax bills going up about $200 for a house assessed at $400,000.
In explaining her opposition, Anderson said she’s received dozens of calls from residents about spending on new positions they don’t see as essential. She said her primary concern is the city’s infrastructure — which has not kept up with growth — and wants to know how the new positions would help address that.
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Nesta said departments heads have pored over spending to see how they can operate more efficiently and identify capital projects that can be delayed or phased in over time. He said he’s looking closely at how to provide staff with what they need to properly serve residents without an unnecessarily high tax rate increase. But the city has put off necessary hiring to the point where, he said, department heads and employees “are begging for new staff members.”
Vice Mayor Diane Velazquez agreed, saying the city has too many people serving in interim positions, citing interim City Administrator Radley Williams as an example. He was hired as the city’s recreation director.
“We have employees that are in positions that they were not hired to do,” Velazquez said. “We’ve been using the same number of staff, as our city as growing, providing the same services.”
Commissioner Yesenia Baron said she supported the .75-mill increase but wants department heads to take a closer look at the need for each new position.
“Those needs to be looked at, those need to be narrowed down, is that a necessity?” Baron said. “We need to start looking at the things that are essential and the things that are not essential.”
During a July 8 budget workshop commissioners discussed a tax rate increase, and Nesta told commissioners he thought they’d reached a consensus on an increase of .75 mills.
At that meeting, Anderson expressed concerns about spending but did not say explicitly that she opposed a .75-mill increase.
In an email Thursday morning, Anderson said her position had not changed since that meeting, but she has learned more.
“The city’s preliminary budget confirms significant proposed administrative and operation spending that deserve closer examination,” Anderson said. “I was not comfortable approving the higher ceiling first and searching for reductions afterward.”
In November voters will consider the ballot amendment, proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved by the Legislature last month, that would expand the current $50,000 homestead exemption on non-school taxes that residents have on their primary residences.
If approved by 60% of voters, the exemption would go up to the first $150,000 of their home’s assessed value starting January 1. That exemption would then increase again, to $250,000 in 2028. That would slash property tax bills for those property owners.
Counties, cities and towns putting together budgets for next year say if it passes, they will need to significantly cut government services — from police and fire to park development, from mosquito control to annual Fourth of July celebrations — because of sharp reductions in tax collections.
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