The leaders of Apopka were finally able to adopt a tentative millage rate hike Thursday, but only after cutting it down enough that they could get around sustained opposition from one commissioner — and the new mayor says that means more budget-cutting.
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Just one day before the state deadline, city commissioners voted 4-1 to increase the preliminary property tax rate for the next fiscal year by just under .24 mills.
Commissioners had wanted to set a preliminary increase of .75 mills, with the goal of reducing it to no more than .50 mills, but were stymied by Anderson. Under the state’s Truth in Millage Act, governments can lower a preliminarily approved rate but face hurdles in raising it.
The new rate of 4.6761 mills, with each mill equaling $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value, will generate about $2.1 million, or 18.9%, in new revenue.
A property owner in the city would pay about $468 for every $100,000 of assessed value — about $25 more than the current rate. That could mean property tax bills going up about $100 for a house assessed at $400,000.
An additional $4.68 million in revenue is expected from a 12.8% increase in property values. The revenue supports the city’s General Fund and its proposed spending plan of almost $169 million.
A .75-mill increase would have boosted tax revenue by about $6.6 million, while a .50-mill increase would have generated an additional $4.4 million.
Orange County and several of its cities, including Orlando, Winter Garden and Winter Park, have opted not to increase millage rates, though Ocoee approved a .3422-mill increase.
Apopka Mayor Nick Nesta said after the meeting that commissioners have difficult decisions to make about additional cuts before the final rate and budget are adopted in September.
“We’ll have to take a deep dive into every single department,” said Nesta, who took office April 28 after serving as a commissioner since 2022. “We’re going to continue to make sure that our budget is as refined as possible.
“I’ve heard from the public … and they want us to cut, and we will cut. Unfortunately it may cut things that they don’t necessarily understand we’re going to have to cut.”
Commissioner Nadia Anderson, the sole dissenting vote, reiterated her concerns in the meeting about spending millions on new positions with a looming statewide vote in November asking residents whether they want to slash property taxes. Her comments often elicited applause from many in attendance.
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“I definitely respect everyone’s position regarding their stance on this massive tax increase,” Anderson said. “I do not want to see any decrease to the services provided to the city.
“If we hire millions and millions of dollars in new positions that we do not need … these positions could potentially have us needing to cut firefighters, cut police officers.”
Preliminary budget documents include about $8.54 million slotted for new positions and about $2.98 million saved from position reductions. Nesta has defended the staffing budget as a matter of catching up after leaving positions vacant far too long and shifting their responsibilities to existing employees.
Anderson again pointed to the commission’s unanimous approval July 15 to hiring Steven “Trooper Steve” Montiero as public information director. He starts Aug. 10 and will get a base salary of $180,000 annually — far above the $133,350 paid to Nesta. The proposed budget for the office is about $440,000.
Nesta has said the position is critical to providing the public with accurate and consistent information on city issues. He issued a news release Thursday to further explain the need and why Montiero was the right choice.
Anderson said she couldn’t support a “blank check” now with promises of a lower rate and budget cuts later.
“I’ve got to know what I’m voting on and I don’t know what I’m voting on,” she said, adding she has gotten many calls and emails from residents concerned about increasing the tax rate.
Nesta emphasized that the process the city is going through is governed by state law and a proposed budget doesn’t even have to come before the preliminary rate is set.
Additionally, he said detailed information about the proposed budget has been available to commissioners and the public for months.
“We probably should not have reduced the rate millage rate last year,” he said. “I think that was very bad timing to set us up for failure this year.”
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