Orange County budget includes higher taxes, more money for fire and medical services

Property owners in unincorporated Orange County will pay more taxes for fire and emergency medical services — and $10 more per year to get their garbage collected — in the new fiscal year which begins October 1, but the countywide tax rate will otherwise remain unchanged for a 17th straight year.

Orange County commissioners set the tax rates Thursday and a FY 2025 budget of $7.24 billion, up from $6.7 billion a year ago.

“In this budget, we have purposefully allocated resources to address critical areas that are essential to ensuring the well-being of our residents,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said in a foreword to a 468-page budget book, which details investments in affordable housing, economic development, public safety and transportation improvements. “We will also develop a plan for expanding services to homeless people.”

The new budget adds $10 million for programs intended to prevent homelessness and assist unsheltered people.

As usual, public safety is the county’s biggest expense.

Commissioners voted, 6-1, with commissioner Mayra Uribe dissenting, to raise the Fire & EMS tax rate from 2.2437 to 2.8437 mills. The 0.6 mill increase will raise an estimated $69.1 million in new revenue to pay for increasing fire service costs, add more firefighters and upgrade technology and personnel.

The increase is the first hike of the property tax rate for Fire/Rescue services in 34 years.

Kurt Petersen, county budget director, said the increase to a taxpayer depends on the assessed value of their property. The owner of a property assessed at $250,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay about $120 more a year for fire services.

The $10 annual increase in the solid-waste fee was triggered by a clause in hauler contracts tied to the Consumer Price Index.

Orange County Fire Rescue Chief James Fitzgerald said rising costs and growth put the departments in a squeeze.

He said at a budget hearing the county needs four new stations and should replace or upgrade at least nine others.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office will get $389 million for its operations, about $28 million more than in last year’s budget.

“Orange County continues to grow so, of course, the Sheriff’s Office continues to grow with it,” Sheriff John Mina said in July.

The budget also includes $16.1 million for affordable housing projects, bringing the total investment in affordable and workforce housing to $83.8 million over the past six years. Following the advice of a task force the mayor created to find solutions to a paucity of affordable housing, he and fellow commissioners are keeping a pledge to commit $160 million over ten years.

Other budgeted expenses are pedestrian, bicycle and motorist safety projects, part of what the mayor has described as a “$100 million Accelerated Transportation Safety Program,” and the county’s continued search for public lands that will preserve natural habitats.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com