Hillsborough’s $10.1 billion budget has a ‘millage swap’ for public safety

Hillsborough County government’s proposed budget of about $10 billion includes a property tax change aimed at beefing up Fire Rescue and sheriff’s office services for residents who live in the unincorporated parts of the county.

County Commissioners got their first public look at the proposed budget Wednesday for the next fiscal year, which represents an increase over this year’s $9 billion budget.

County Administrator Bonnie Wise presented the plan, which includes a modest property tax decrease for residents of Hillsborough’s three cities — Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City — paired with enhancing services out in the county.

Dubbed a “millage swap”, it would work like this:

Residents countywide, including in the cities, would get a reduction of 0.1 mill, or one-tenth of a mill — with one mill being equal to $1 for each $1,000 of their assessed property value. People living in the unincorporated parts of the county outside the cities, meanwhile, would get a 0.1 mill increase, which would mean no net change for them.

So only city dwellers would actually see the modest decrease, but money from the swap would be directed to unincorporated parts the county.

It would be done in this somewhat complicated fashion — reducing countywide and increasing outside the cities — because monies to benefit specific areas can only come from funds intended for those areas.

“Countywide general fund property revenue is reduced about $15.7 million and unincorporated area revenue is increased about $9.4 million” with this swap, according to the budget.

The change is intended to meet increasing service demands, particularly for public safety services, in the growing unincorporated parts of the county. Officials will try decreasing response times for both Fire Rescue and the sheriff’s office by adding personnel and facilities.

“This is something we haven’t done before,” Tom Fesler, Hillsborough’s Chief Financial Administrator, told commissioners. “We’re trying to get additional money over to the unincorporated areas.”

The budget anticipates new uses for Indigent Care Sales Surtax revenue, which funds health care for poor residents and “has grown substantially in recent years,” according to the budget.

That would mean using $15.7 million in surtax revenue for Hillsborough County Jail inmates and $5 million to Fire Rescue services “for appropriate indigent populations,” the budget says.

The sheriff’s office is a big beneficiary of the proposed budget, with an allotted $653 million.

Other items in the budget’s general fund for fiscal year 2025 include: expansion of the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office with more resources for the increased workload, relocation of the sheriff’s office headquarters from Ybor City to near Brandon, major jail maintenance, seed funds for a new pet resources facility, full funding for the Upper Tampa Bay Trail and an additional contribution to the African American Arts and Cultural Center.

Hillsborough commissioners took no vote or other action Wednesday. A public hearing — which is expected to include commissioners’ first votes on their pet projects that are generally known as “flagged” items in the budget — is scheduled for July 31.

The next public hearing will be held Sept. 12, followed by another on Sept. 19. At that hearing, the county is expected to adopt the final budget.