Homeowners can expect to pay slightly more in property taxes this fall to fund the proposed $524.7 million budget County Administrator John A. Titkanich presented to county commissioners at a recent budget workshop.
The total proposed budget is a 3.5 percent increase from the current year’s beginning budget of $506.9 million.
The countywide tax roll increased 10.3 percent, still growing from an overheated market and new construction, but cooling slightly from last year’s 13.8 percent increase in assessed property values.
During the budget workshop presentation, Titkanich said the general fund millage rate has remained steady for the sixth year in a row and that Indian River County has the sixth lowest general fund millage of all 67 Florida counties.
Proposed millage rates remain relatively unchanged from the current year, with the difference being a 6-cent per $1,000 in taxable value increase for a land acquisition bond.
The proposed aggregate millage rate is $6.10 per $1,000 of taxable property value.
Under the proposed tax rate, a property owner whose home is assessed at $1 million will pay about $230 more in county property taxes this fall than last year.
That’s about $19 per month, but the exact amount of the tax increase will depend on where in the county the resident lives, as Vero and Indian River Shores residents pay municipal taxes to their respective municipalities, and Indian River Shores does not pay into the county’s Emergency Services District.
Listing the county’s major accomplishments, Titkanich included a restructuring effort that included adding an assistant county administrator and other positions. The 2024-25 budget adds a net of 37 full-time positions to address “staff deficiencies,” while department heads had asked for 80 new positions, Titkanich said, “It certainly has been a year of investing and planning for the future.”
A new department called the Building and Facilities Services Department will combine building and permitting, fire prevention, facilities management, and capital projects divisions to streamline permitting and inspections, and improve customer service. Six of the 37 added full-time positions are slated for the new department.
Chair Susan Adams said, “We all have to work together with the taxpayers’ dollars to try to be as clean as possible so we all accomplish our goals.”
Rather than spend $8.7 million directly on employee raises, commissioners approved an $8.7 million Employee Compensation and Classification study so consultants can tell the county how to retain and attract “valuable employees.”
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers had asked for an $8.84 million budget increase, but agreed to a more realistic $4.78 million increase. “We’re still in the process of seeing how we’re going to make this work,” said Flowers, who pledged to “crunch the operations budget” while preserving funds for staffing.
Proposed constitutional officer budgets increased 6.3 percent, including a 3.8 percent increase in the Supervisor of Elections budget due to the presidential election and the implementation of a new operating system for ballot tabulation.
A public hearing on the tentative budget is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 5:01 p.m., and a final budget hearing and adoption of millage rates will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 5:01 p.m.