9.17.24 Pasco Board of County Commissioners (Budget Hearing)

evening um at this time I'd like to call back to order the meeting for uh the final 2025 milit rates and budget budget hearing would you please um silence all electronic devices and stand with me for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance oh merciful Creator your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creat make us thankful for your loving Providence and Grant that we remembering the account that we must one day give may be faithful stewards of your good gifts amen amen the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all mam clerk uh please call the row District Two commissioner waitman District three commissioner starky District Four commissioner joer here District 5 commissioner Mariano here district one chairman Oakley here let me known that we have all five members here today and we have a quorum um now we have the procedures to adopt the final 2025 millage rates um budget hearing uh second public hearing SE September 17th which is 515 in Newport Richie okay this is the final budget hearing to adopt the fiscal year 20125 budget for the Border County commissioners of Pasco County Florida Citizens will be given Pro will be provided an opportunity to speak during this public comment um portion of the of the hearing and does the clerk have a proof of publication uh yes sir proof of publication in the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday September 15 2024 okay in accordance with the Florida statute of 2065 the first issue to be discussed is the recommended military and the percentage changes in the rowback rates I can go ahead evening Commissioners Eric Brighton boach assistant County Administrator for internal Services uh chairman members of the board the aggregate millage rate as advertised on the trim notices was 10.26 45 milli Ms which represents an 11.34% increase from the aggregate rolled back rate of 92192 Ms the reason the aggregate millage rate is higher is because the total taxable value increased between last year and this year generating additional Revenue levied for the same millage rate table one in your handout shows the millage rates for the various County levies and a comparison of the recommended millage rates to the roll back rates in the prior year adopted Mill rates rather than read this chart into the record we have provided copies to each commissioner board records and members of the audience at the first public hearing on the budget the board of County Commissioners adopted a budget based upon the millage rates used in the trim notices each property owner received the only change from the proposed budget set in July to the tentative budget set during the first

public hearing is that the board reduced the park Capital maintenance mstu from 0.712 Ms to 0.000000 Ms I'd like to give a brief summary of the general fund and transportation trust fund budgets stating the millage rates the percentage change from the roll back rate and the reasons for such a change the millage rate for the general fund is 7.42 N2 Mills which is a 5.08% increase from the roll back rate of 7.73 the millage rate is a reduction from last year's millage rate and is a result of the board's direction from this morning's board meeting the county realized a 14.1% increase in taxable assessed values over the past year compared to the current year the general fund expenditure budget represents an increase of 87 million the main factors for this include fully funding the sheriff's budget request including 20 additional deputies implementing phase one of the dshift for rescue Personnel operational expenditures for the expanded Detention Center wage increases for the PBA and iaff unions and a wage increase based on a compensation and classification study for board and constitutional officers employees prior action by the Florida legislature eliminated the requirement for a mandatory Transportation ADV valorum tax no Transportation millage was levied last year and we propose no millage be assessed this year for the transportation fund I would ask that the board accept General accept public comment and then vote on the general fund and the transportation trust fund millage rates and Associated budgets the minimum vote to Levy the general fund millage rate is a simple majority or three votes according to maximum millage rate calculations okay does anyone wish to speak to the board regarding the general fund and transportation trust fund M do we have uh people signed up we do sir um so I am going to call um you to the podium I'm going to kind of do it three at a time so if you hear your name just stand in line in the order that I call you when you come to the podium please give your name and address for the record and then you can speak um you'll have your three minutes all right so the first three that I'm going to call are Christopher Nelson Peggy burn and Daniel [Applause] laugher name and address for the clerk hi my my name is Christopher Nelson I'm uh 2200 Branding Iron Court Trinity Florida um I'm the vice president for West Pasco girls fast PCH Softball Association um I'm here on behalf of the general fund for the parks and wreck of this um our League's been around for over 30 years we moved from oakd to starky Ranch District park um thank you all for voting for that field to go in there um we went over there under the stipulation that you know parks and recck was going great and everything's going great we get over there and we got one field taken away cuz baseball needs one of the fields well that means that

we don't have enough baseball fields apparently CU we were supposed to have four Fields go from two to four so we could increase and now we can't increase we have over almost 300 girls signed up 22 teams left last year just for our West Pasco girls fast fet alone you know so it's great houses are being built but the infrastructure needs to be along with it and I don't think parks and Rex infrastructure has enough money and enough resources for them to do what needs to be done right now our youth is the the Next Generation you know um if our youth doesn't have anywhere to go where are they going to go they can be on the streets causing trouble they can be at computers there's sex tracking there's Predators I'd rather have them at the ball fields or in some kind of a youth program doing something the other thing is I mean there's 45 baseball fields and 12 girls softball fields I mean I think girls use Sports is getting underrated in this whole entire thing you go down to Drew Street in pass in panel's County whole entire street is girls fast pitch softball ESPN puts on a girls fast fast pitch for the whole colleges down there you know I mean they bring in all that stuff there's just a lot that we could do me and my wife went up to the Dixie national meeting we secured the bid for the 2026 World Series to come here to starky Ranch District park so we now have the world series coming here we can do a lot we can help PCO County but we need help from Pasco County to help parks and wck and parks and W to help us in order for all this to happen and it just doesn't seem like there's a that's happening it seems like there's a disconnect somewhere along the pathways because you know we've tried we're doing everything and it just doesn't seem to be working we're getting Kickback saying there's not enough people to do the fields there's not enough enough this there's not enough that we don't have this we don't have that so Parks W needs money your time's up no no he has another one more minute got they need the money um I was looking you know families are going to be moving in you know like I said I we secured 2026 we can bring in state tournament we can bring in World Series we can bring in tournaments we can bring in all this stuff but we got to have parks and wreck and we got to have help in order to do all this stuff so I'm I'm asking that you help what I enjoy which is the the Youth of our next generation and help us to help them have Parks and Recreation athletic fields and everything else to go to so that we can uh continue what we're doing so thank you all for your time and I appreciate it thank you thank you we will try again next year I'm sorry it went to zero but we'll try again next year go ahead next name and address please hello my name is Peggy Burn b y r n e123 363 East Point Drive Dade City so the millage rate proposed is an increase it's too high the answer to that should be no perhaps the reality of what homeowners are facing has escaped

all but Commissioners waitman in Mariana everything is going up folks and our infrastructure is inadequate TCO need only ask for more money and it seems to be given for the record it's not the taxpayers job to help Tico perform better the last rate increases were so it was prepared for Hurricane Season since little of those monies were used for that the rate should have decreased it did not now we have the sheer stupidity of comments like this rate hikes will help insulate customers from higher costs it's just ridiculous and we have to wonder if that CEO obviously had gone to the same world word salad school as kamla Harris also uh since Tio foreign owned uh Corporation the county gave them an interest free loan the last time they should have been told to go and get an American Bridge Loan like w American companies do so why is everything going up in this County the answer to that seems simple overdevelopment under the guise of a master plan there are many residents that have attended both planning board and County Commissioners meetings where every public comment was against what was being presented you the Commissioners voted for them time and time again we have lost much acreage in the rural protection Zone to developers like Wilton Simpson who buy the land cheap and then get it reson by his friends that would be you in order to fill his coffers we need a moratorium on building so services and infrastructure can catch up we can then charge Developers for all of the upgrades they require not just some of them and taxpayers are left to clean up the mess go going online it is particularly offensive when you the Commissioners list the core values of Pesco County including this little gy we place our citizens and customers first that is baloney and frankly it means that the County Commissioners are ignoring the wishes of their constituents and are indeed violating the core values of the county please do not think that taxpayers have not noticed we have and you would be wrong I hope that you'll look at your costs in the future and live within your means you are making the taxpayers of this County have to live within their means people that are born and raised in this County and I've met quite a few I'm not from here it saddens me to see people telling me and hear people telling me they have to move out because they can't afford to live in this County that is through the management of what the County Commissioners are doing here please find a way to reduce your costs but do support things that that support safety like the police and obviously the Corrections Officers that are here tonight safety is pivotal for every body thank you CL my name's Daniel laugher I live at 1425 Jutland drive in Trinity and last year I paid $4,300 for road repaving in front of my house now in Pasco County the roads will be included in the tax bill this year so

my question is I will be getting will I be getting a refund because I made a full payment for the roads that under the new tax law I would have paid for 10 to 15 years worth of taxes if the new tax law goes into effect this year I will be paying double taxes for years I also heard people who decided to put over 10 years with a lean on their house will be taken off and they'll start fresh with a new tax law the lean taken off and start I'm a retired on a fixed income and it's not fair to be double charged when we take the money out of our little savings thank you Commissioners thank you you want to address that yeah well we can but yeah because someone else may have that same question go ahead and address we can address that during the presentation if the board likes okay okay so the next three individuals signed up are Jessica H Haskins follow by Stephanie pulk then Joseph Laro Jr name and address for the clerk my name is Jessica H Haskins it's 13725 reindeer Circle Hudson Florida go ahead um I'm I'm here on behalf of the Nature Coast bolts Football Association um we are a little new an upcoming football organization out of Shady Hills we have been operating out of Elise Logan I'm not here to complain I'm not here to beg for anything I just want to show our appreciation that we've been able to purchase a dilapidated league and now turn it into something that's been such an inspiration to Shady Hills Shady Hills is not an affluent neighborhood we have been bringing tons of kids into our organization we started last year with over 90 kids we took those 90 kids and we took an U team to the state championship and won second place we also have our cheerleaders who went and won regionals from our success we are now at 159 this year with sponsoring over 30% it's over $15,000 of our funds that we are paying for these kids to be there that are off the streets what we're asking for is just a little bit of help to see if we can update Shady Hills back behind the baseball fields other than our commissioner I'm not sure if you have been back there it is a Little Slice of Heaven it is so peaceful back there we are there five to six nights a week with these kids and we have our concession stand our concession stands doesn't have screens our flies are coming through and some of the food that these children are eating that's their only home-cooked meal at our concession field at night um we are in need of our scoreboard that is going to that needs to be fixed because we have our first home game coming up and these kids love seeing their scores on that scoreboard but we don't have that we don't even have pads for our uprights so we don't know if we're going to get fined from our organization if we don't have the pads on there and we understand that we're going to make do we're going to keep going the league is up and running another thing we wanted to bring forth is since we won the second place in the state last year that

Elite organization has asked us to host a spring tournament which brings in over 5,000 people on a weekend and to do that in Shady Hills would be incredible but we only have one Fe which we understand but we can Branch out but I can't imagine all the hotel all the restaurants around here what that would do for 3 months of games so we're just asking if you can go visit it see what you can do to help us out if not we understand but we want to make sure that these kids have a safe environment and make sure that our league grows immensely because we are all about sponsoring the kids that we don't turn anybody away even if we don't have that fun we're out there shaking the helmets we're out there doing fundraisers as much as we can but we just wanted to say thank you for allowing us to go in there and we'll make do with what we have but if there is any way that you can help us update it to make it look like baseball that would be amazing I appreciate it thank you for is your email and contact information on the sheet because I will get in touch with you I will come visit I appreciate it thank you the name of your organization uh Nature Coast bolts and I get some ideas for you okay thank you thank you what you do go bolts thank you you have her name there I do got one or two here hi I'm Stephanie P I'm the president from D City little league and with me is Melissa Scher sorry Melissa Scher vice president of Da the league um I'm not sure if what we're here to talk about has already been discussed and that's I'm piggybacking off the first people that talked um we have been running dates we have not been running dates little league but dly little league has been in the system over 70 years um over 40 years ago we were given a little piece of property off um Jee Nelson Boulevard called Burks Park um we have we had 325 student not sorry I'm a teacher too 325 players last year made us 26 teams functioning off four only four fields of the nine that we have there are we say nine there are technically eight because field six became a soccer uh field but of those eight fields we were only allowed to use four we were told that having eight teams of so of softball was not enough to Warrant having two fields for that um we have been told over and over during the district tournaments that we host the regional tournaments that we host how great our Park would be to host tournaments um when I've reached out and asked about how to go about doing that we haven't really gotten much information on that but it's something we'd like to do and something something we'd like to offer and as the previous person said it brings in a lot of money not just for our league but for the county for the hotels for the restaurants but there are things that we need to be able to do um we are fighting for our Park versus adult players adult leagues and Trav ball travel ball and what's going to

happen is if we don't really get a better I don't know handle over our park and over our Fields we're going to be overrun by travel ball and we're not going to be able to sustain you still have a minute you still have one minute um we do need people it's hard to talk to anybody at you know at Parks and Recreation when everybody leaves at 3: um we just found out that on occasion we can ask for someone to stay on the weekend like if we have a tournament or something but it's really hard to run a Le when you can't really talk to anybody after 3:00 um when we've had issues with people coming in and being disrespectful or trying to take over the league um park that is being rented out by us or other use other things like that um we gave up our batting cages we were told that we would get new ones we don't have new batting cages we have no place for them to warm up on the below acre or the below fields that we have so there's just a lot of things that we really need your attention on and hope that basically just to get our Fields back yeah all all eight of them as much as we can okay thank you we'll try again next year okay y good afternoon Commissioners my name is Joseph Lardo I live at 4651 Sawgrass Boulevard Newport Richie Florida um and congratulations commissioner jger on your victory in the primaries um I feel a little embarrassed to be here for my little problem that I have but I think that it will Encompass more things if I get this out basically it's going to be involved with road paving again um let's see I moved here in 88 I've been in the house that I'm at since 98 so 26 years um Debbie hit in 08 I think it was and the roads got demolished they came and resurfaced in my area Cypress Lakes which is Mitchell Boulevard that area and they neglected to do my road I have all the documentation and all the paperwork and Google Maps and all that stuff but basically the road didn't get done and then over time we have documented over a thousand Vehicles a day traveling by my house so much so that I came in last year and requested a three-way stop sign be put in at Cypress Lakes and sress which the county did realized it needed it and they put it in just to kind of slow traffic down but they didn't do anything about the road paving and all that now we have of course the rainy season has come and we have a debacle with the roads as you know I know everybody's on the east side taking care of the flooding Zer Hills and they're kind of not doing the west side right now fixing potholes and whatnot but what's happening is the road's crumbling up uh patching it's just not going to work anymore and I know that we have reassessed the way we do our Paving I think what I would like to do is at least find out if I can get on the list to get my road paved and the surrounding area paved correctly and my question to you guys is do you have a schedule for road paving do we have any

of that going on because maybe I just need to go right to traffic which I've talked to him before and Road and Bridge I can't really get an answer out of them because they'll say well it's six weeks out before we can patch the road and we don't know when your Road's going to be paved but there's a schedule is there a schedule is there somebody that I could talk to in rad and Bridge other than bother and the manager I'll have somebody take care okay I appreciate that that's all I have thank you very much all right thank you ramford okay next person so the the next individual did not leave their name but the organization is Florida free state followed by Daniel Hagen and then Janine Duffy my it says on file sir can you give your name that was my address but I gave my name my name is Brian Paris it says my address is on file but uh anyway uh Brian Paris on file my address I I disagree with raising any fees against we the people we've already struggling in this economy it's ridiculous I know if I'm a small business owner that if I ran my business like you guys run the county I would be in default so I can't go to other people and say hey can you help me with my bu mismanagement of my business skills because oh I just spent too much and then I would have to show an audit how come we never get an audit from our government of where our money goes we're taking in the most taxes we've ever taken in in the history of this County and we're watching our land be destroyed that's someone who's from here second generation I've watched my County get destroyed I know I know this is supposed to be a government of the People by the people and for the people I know it's not though because it's a it's a government of the development and the developers it's disgusting what is going on man this is ridiculous our tax paying money where it says in the Constitution actually is voluntary is supposed to go to public safety and infrastructure and yeah we should pay all our First Responders and thank God for them and I appreciate them and and thank you each and every first responder for your service but it it is not supposed to go to oh let's let's develop this and do that no and it's also infrastructure one of you guys stated last year it takes eight years to get a road done why aren't we developing on the same timeline I feel like I live in New York Pasco County it's ridiculous soon we're all going to be on top of each other hey man man you got I know we're in we're we're peasants now and we just have a little bit of food but you got this maybe Mar with you like it's ridiculous we're all going to be in Parks sleeping we we need the parks so in case we do have to go sleep in them it's ridiculous come on man in this economy we shouldn't be raising nothing on anybody there's people out there barely getting food you see on Facebook post all the time hey you know I'm trying to

feed my kids has anybody got a few dollars but yeah here we're going to raise fees and taxes on people come on man it's really and then last year one of yall stated during the China virus lockdowns that you guys never locked anybody down or forced anybody to wear masks this isn't obviously for the people who were elected after that so but from small business owners we closed for takeout only during the China during the virus mandates around 40 days per guidelines and then open after that 25% capacity then 50% capacity we definitely took a hit one of my employees Kristen Parish was off laid off but one of you stated that you never shut any businesses down and we're never forced to wear masks and that's a lie I'm calling that out you're wrong because people were shut down and then this is we got to develop I'm actually and then I stated we shouldn't we should have a moratorium on development but someone also stated that's illegal well what's illegal is taxation without representation and we need to not develop so much right now it's ridiculous this I know um all right thank you comments yes sir you continue clapping then you might have to be leaving the room so go ahead sir uh my name is Daniel Hagen I'm here to represent the uh Police benevent Association um good evening County Commissioners on behalf of the um address 12484 wait wait you might be prend oh are you protected yes should be yeah you're protect excuse me I don't need to know where you live that on behalf of the police benevolent Association I would like to express our sincere gratitude for your unwavering support to our Corrections Department your dedication to ensuring that our correctional officers and staff have the resources they need to succeed is both invaluable and deeply appreciated the work we do is challenging but it is only made possible by your continued support and the fact that you have recognized the importance of investing in public safety your continued commitment to providing the necessary funding Staffing and tools directly impacts the safety and well-being of not only our officers and staff but the entire Community we know the public service requires tough decisions and we are incredibly fortunate to have leadership that prioritizes the well-being of both our personnel and the public that we serve your support allows us to create an environment where our correctional officers and staff can do their best work for our community each every day once again thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to the safety and success of our community thank you thank you uh Miss Janine Duffy okay there you are Janine Duffy 5550 Front Drive Holiday Florida 34690 um I actually just have a bunch of questions whether you answer them or not it doesn't really matter um I'm looking for are more itemized expenses and um you know all the way down to what our

our trucks how much gas they use or what the salaries are or where all the money actually does go where can I find that information where can everybody find that information um I don't I can't seem to find it on the website um or anywhere around that um also I know you've heard about the condo crisis so I'm curious how many people um here in Pasco County are now suffering from those insatiable assessments and how many of those people are elderly um I also would like to uh say that I spent my Saturday night kidf Frey uh listening to the affordable housing Workshop I hope you all remember it it's really fresh in my mind you were explained for for quite some time even though it was May 3rd I believe May 21st you were deeply explained how bad the affordable housing situation is in this County for the people that work at these convenience stores and these fast food restaurants and the school bus drivers and the teachers and the people that clean your houses and so when when you decide to raise anything you need to realize that you're part of what's going to put people on the street more of them a lot more of them thank you thank you for your comments okay so the next three individuals signed up are Tom salato Melissa Jones and Christy Zimmer good evening Commissioners uh my name is is Thomas salato 18235 floralton Drive that's in Spring Hill 34610 that's Pasco County side um there's been a lot said already that I don't I'm not going to repeat so I'm going to abib a little bit but my home many homes in this County have aged 40 years or more have seen a significant increase in property T taxes in value thus creating a significant increase in the property tax assessment this without consideration of any new homes being built where is the surplus of that money going and can we be more credential in the use of that Surplus and funding developers have received a record number of tax savings incentives and impact fee deferments commercial businesses have received forgivable loans with 0.5% interest rates unmet conditions with no accountability this loss of tax revenue has put the additional tax burden on the residents Pasco County is no longer a county where we need to incentivize any building we should be controlling our growth not jeopardizing our rural landscape and we should be preserving our natural resources there stands many vacant buildings both new and old that can be incentivized to improve repurpose and renovate without the environmental impact that new construction has been having on our County as you review the budget today I would ask that the commission consider not increasing taxes again over the last six years my tax bill has increased 30% with the proo proposed tax increase

considered today my tax bill will have increased another 10% from last year the affordability of paying my taxes is not my issue I must make it afford I make it affordable because I must when discussing today's budget items please consider the sacrifices other families are making or are they creating additional debt to help pay their bills and just get by I support fire and rescue I support our jails and our Sheriff's Department those Services we need our County Parks it's a very low amount we should also be considering that we need to be looking in other areas to trim to make C pasker County a better place thank you hi my name is Melissa Jones I live at 2615 buffam place in Holiday Florida 34691 um I want to pay you back off of what he had just said um about the taxes I too my my taxes have significantly uh increased also um in Holiday we have a a really a safety concern um we a high crime rate there um I know that I I live in a culdesac I know not too long ago I was mowing my front lawn and I had somebody um come into my yard um he had a cell phone saying that somebody was trying to kill him and he needed a place to hide um I told him to call 911 um I know that there's been a lot of break-ins um car break-ins um there doesn't seem to be any you know patrols I don't know if it's because we don't have the funding for it um also the infrastructure if you take Sunray the potholes are huge on a certain section of SunRay um you kind of have to avoid them because you'll blow your tire out uh there was also a sinkhole that or a depression that had opened up on Darlington just past the the bridge um and that seems to they covered it up with with with rock it hasn't been paved over or anything like that um so it is kind of hard to get home to I me unfortunately for me work from home and I'm not out that often but when I do go out I I want to be able to utilize the road without my car you know breaking um a tire or whatever the undercarriage um those are those are my main concerns um I'll make it brief this is my first rodeo um thank you Commissioners I appreciate it okay thank you for your comments good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Chris de my address is on your record I am a realtor of 37 years we are taxing our people out of their homes the people who are having to sell right now are because their taxes have increased exp potentially along with their homeowners insurance granted that's not your Balo but the taxes are the assessed values that we're working with right now are grossly inflated and even though we may have a 3% save our homes cap on there it's not not helpful when the assessments are so high it's not forgiving at all your forgivable loans and the tax abatements are creating a bigger impact and burden on the taxpayers parks I hear these people complaining that they're not getting the money for the parks yet we have three

line items for parks where is the money going if you're going to spend millions of dollars to purchase the property at 52 and 41 that pinelis County owns under e lamp using Park money that we don't need to have to purchase that because they're paying us taxes on that land why would we want to buy it why aren't we diverting that money back into the recreation facilities in the Parks where it belongs we don't need that property for El lamp I don't know if that one's still on the table but it has been for a long time two years ago Mike Wells came to you guys and told you it was a good time to reduce the millage rates but y'all decided not to and got greedy and decided to keep the money and now with all the overburden of the super development that's going on there should not be a question of a tax-based need but yet the current residents of Pasco County are having to put that bill I would suggest that we tighten our purse strings cut out the wasteful spending I don't know what other person in this room is making 100,000 Plus on a part-time basis like you guys are so we all need to cut back maybe we should start with you thank you no so there is no one else signed up there are two on web XS do you want to take those first before you call for the public first is there anyone in the room that would like to speak that did not sign up come forward and line up okay and and when you come to the uh Podium name and address for the record uh and then you'll have your three minutes okay thank you sir good evening everybody my name is nagesh and my oops okay my address is 341 southw l Chapel 33543 so I am the President of Tampa Premier League we are an organizing body for Cricket and we have been doing this for last uh 7 to 8 years I understand all the economic decisions you take and the inflation and all those things but we have been in the crisis situation since we started we have been playing Cricket on a marshy field a catchment area basically where water gets and collected there are a lot of portoles and there's a lot of things that are going on we started with about six teams and now we have moved to 60 teams 60 60 we have constantly asked for help with the cricket field for the last 8 to n years and we have been just not getting that help um we have been requested for youth tournaments and youth people that the hous is getting built on 54 56 and so on so forth and uh the population has been increasing but there is no support to play the sport uh all Cricket is now an Olympic sport um it has been part of the World Cup United States have done well in cricket recently and uh when we have seeing so much of population growth and demand growth but there has been no support for Cricket so I request the County Commissioners to think a little bit for the cricket as a sport as well because we have been trying to play cricket in Pasco County and for all the houses that have been growing there's just one Park which is Wesley Chapel District bu which have we have been

sharing it with other sports and apart from that we have been playing on the mar land which is not fit to play cricket but we still playing there because we don't have any choice so I request uh all of us all of you to just look into it in your budet decisions and we are there to help you out as well so that is my request thank you thank you for your comments it's Ryan prior at 8931 Elkmont Lane Westy cap Florida um my name is Ryan PRI and I'm the owner of a prior baseball farm um just really here to just talk a little bit about the parks in general um been a business owner been in the community about 20 years uh been in business 15 years um doing baseball we work with thousands of kids throughout the year uh in baseball and softball um one of the issues that I have with the parks in general or just needing more Parks really at the end of the day are things like when registration starts and this is a perfect example at Wesley Chapel registration goes out to the communities or the players from the previous season they open up registration registration is open it's closed within 10 minutes because the previous like it was fall season they mark it to fall season spring is filled up so any new residents coming into the community are locked out Wesley Chapel I know right now probably has two to 300 on their waiting list okay so those are two or 300 kids that were losing to hillsbor County not getting engaged and this tonight might not just be baseball this could be lots of sports I don't know um I'm speaking on behalf of the the baseball community so that's just one scenario of not having facilities uh for kids as an outlet um one of the things that I believe in in within my company is that if there's a problem there's an opportunity so what we've done is we've actually started the prior farm league we Pilot We piloted the league in 23 we launched it this summer uh at L Lakes as a satellite we had 135 kids in the program so we're running Seasons outside of of the Little League seasons and now we're going out and reaching out to the little leagues and meeting with them to see during their off season if we can run our farm league which is a different format which I won't get into it's a development program for education and for development within the sport so it complement the leagues to put the kids back into the leagues better equipped to play um that's just trying to solve the problem when the fields are not being used we try to use them and develop to complement the leagues because that's the best we can do um but we do need more parks um in the in Pasco County in general uh for a lot of the sports and the cricket guy I've watched him play cricket down there for the last seven years cuz we're on soccer turfield sometimes uh playing as well so they do they play cricket in the marsh so uh hats off to them but we do need more Parks um around Pasco for the kids thank you very much thank you hello hi my name is Kenneth hpower um 9130 drizen Lane I lived here for for

my whole life pretty much I've actually worked here for over 25 years I've done tons of people's houses and I tell you this is the worst time I've ever been around um most of the people I talk to now can barely afford to be here um most of them are leaving I can tell you that most of the properties I work on um usually they're leaving or they're fixing their house to turn around and sell it um because they can't afford it no more uh the insurance is too high um I guess your property taxes are being raised where um it's ridiculous even my property tax I think it's a joke um I thought you know when we buy house you know after we pay it off I I thought it was ours but I guess we're have to pay taxes on it I don't know where that came from I thought this was a free place but I guess it's not I'm realizing that more and more every year I can tell you that um I didn't have too much to say I just I have a lot to say but you know I never been up here before um this is my first time but I tell you it's uh really oddd that you know a lot of people have to go through all this half the people I know are older people that can't speak for themselves so I'm kind of up here for their behalf um because they can't get here um I wish that you know you guys can consider um thinking about that before you you know raise your property tax because you know after after this well I can tell you I'm probably going to move because I ain't going be here no more because I tell you what the property the taxes is too high in my insurance I don't even have insurance I don't because it's too high um I might as well save that money wait till my house burns down and I can rebuild it myself instead of having to do it and that's how I feel about it um but you know whatever you guys think I hope you guys come up with a good agreement to figure out what to do because I don't even think this tax is Justified but you know um I'm here for the people that can't talk so um I hope that helps you guys out and makes you gives you a better decision on your judgment thank you thank you no clapping but good job for your first time yeah hi Lisa mer 16331 IA Woods Trail um as I was watching the budget hearings previously the workshops and things that we've been going through it seems like I mean this is a fairly sizable budget for a county we're a large County but this is still a lot of money and you've heard today from a lot of residents who are telling you that the way that we are spending our money is not meeting their needs uh I spent the weekend in needy mck pulling out stuff out of a creek that no one could seem to figure out how come we can't get the creek to flow and uh it's apparently no one's responsibility so the water's not flowing which means it's backing up and it's flooding residents homes I've been out to other people who are watching as we allow developers to live their properties that water has to go somewhere they're the low spot their back fence for their cattle is so far underwater you can't see the fence

posts so somehow and they look at me and they say I'm paying taxes I'm paying for storm water I'm paying for all these things and yet my life and our quality of life doesn't work I'm also talking with a lot of residents who are telling me I can't stay here anymore I just can't I can't afford it I can't get here so on top of that we've also seen a lot of our um housing prices for affordable housing Skyrocket uh our median house price is $369,000 people can't afford that as affordable housing so they can't live in our County they work in our County but they can't afford to live here which means they aren't part of our community and that's wrong so as you I know you're not going to be able to do much today because you've already been through so much of the process but as you move forward I hope you'll stop stop and think about where the money is being spent and what you're hearing from people as to what they really need what they really want because we aren't meeting that need thanks thank you for your comments person have ncy Hazelwood 34110 a nice place it's nice to see yall in a different venue um I've got just a couple of short and sweet things to say which is I'd like to see the development community pick up Parks and Recreation and do a lot more for this County also I was wondering if anybody had given any thought to opening up some of the schools to extra over after school activities for the people here thank y'all okay thank for your comments everybody uh we have two on WebEx do you want to move to WebEx okay yep um so the first one on WebEx is Gina bleo miss bleo you there see your name up here miss bellio if you are speaking you are on mute okay now can you hear me I can name and address for the record and then you have your three minutes okay this for Mr and Mrs Bello the address and the address is 2382 paraban way in Wesley Chapel Florida okay thank you um and this is a uh a townhouse it's a small townhouse very small only 1300 square feet and when I purchased it they told me the price was going to be $4,400 for the taxes now I'm looking at 5,100 which is a big gigantic difference and I'm really not happy with that because I hardly use the place I'm only there maybe three times three times a year which is three weeks in a year I don't use the schools I don't use the jails I don't use the libraries I don't use anything over there so why should I have to pay all this money if from I hardly even use the place is my point you know you have to finish your comments please uh is there anything else I should say or any questions that you have no we won't we won't talk back and forth It's your comments your time to speak my okay all right I mean it's just I think it's too much to pay for for something that I hardly use and um I don't think it's fair you know especially now I'm out you know I'm out

of work because I broke my foot so I'm out of work for a while I don't know I just hope I can go back uh you know I don't know what else to say I mean I like the place but I just think it's too much money and too much of a big jump of a tax increase well you know it's too much all at once I could see a small increase but this is way too much I mean I don't know what else to say that's my main point I don't use the parks I don't use the jail I don't use the the the libraries I don't use the schools I mean I hardly use the place so I don't see why I should have to pay all this money and I'm I'm hardly there you know I'm only there a few weeks you know few weeks in a year and I just think it's just too much too much of an increase way too much so I don't know what else to say to you if you have any questions please ask me well thank you for your comments okay is that it that's it yes ma'am okay so I just wait to hear from you through the mail or something we still have time on the clock okay I should have had my husband join me for this let me see if he he'll he wants to say anything can you hold on a minute Larry your time's going to be up if you you want to say anything about the Florida house complain about this big increase big old inor uh she I think she's been disconnected so next person all right she calling from uh out of state paring way I don't know um so the next person signed up is Vincent Gano on WebEx Mr Gano are you there sir if you are speaking you're on mute hello Mr guano you there I heard him I heard him but he's gone if you are there um make sure you're unmute unmuted and then your name and address for the record hello there you are speak hey how you doing okay but give us your name and address for the clerk yes my name's Vince Scarano my address is 8204 Laura Delo drive for Richie so I'll keep this brief I was here last year and you did come down a little bit in the millage um it took five hours I think you all remember that uh I'm a retired policeman I don't get coal increases and given the fact that my homeowners is doubling next year and uh maybe at least we can come together to uh lower the millage just a little bit and not make this uh so difficult this year um that's all I have to say thank you all right thank you for your comments sir you're welcome okay got everybody on web that's everyone on WebEx I see a gentleman that walked up were you in the room when I asked everybody that was going to speak in the room come forward yes sir and you didn't I I was going speak well I'm G to give you time to speak because you deserve we we need to hear what you're going to say okay thank

you name and address for the record yes sir I'm John Michael Moren the president of the Pasco County professional firefighters my address is exempt over the last decade I've committed myself on behalf of the members to developing relationships with County leadership forged in trust and transparency administrator carala assistant County Administrator JJ Murphy remain engaged with us and subsequently have taught me how to better balance the needs of my members the public safety branch and the rest of the county departments under your purview it is not lost on any of us that the taxpayer provides our livelihood hoods and we have an obligation to be good stewards of their money I am confident that under the leadership of JJ Murphy and his staff the fire rescue budget is operating as lean and as efficiently as possible not withstanding the unprecedented growth we are enduring and the unrelenting need to provide emergency services to an exploding population we will continue to work together to exploit alternative funding sources whenever possible to alleviate the burden on the citizens last year we secured the afg grant for retrofitting our fire stations with direct source diesel exhaust capture and have continued those efforts this year the department received a Firehouse Subs Grant to purchase new swiftwater rescue boats and additional grant funding from the opioid task force that will expand our mobile Integrated Health program by providing Medical Care and resource tools to our most vulnerable patients along with the International Association of firefighters we will continue to advocate for the safer Grant request for 24 new firefighter letters and will continue to lobby for state level appropriation requests that prioritize Public Safety we have experienced success by working together and look forward to continuing to build our relationship we acknowledge and respect the difficult position you are in as elected officials especially during these trying times and we will do all that we can to help thank you as always for your continued support of our proud Union firefighters yes sir thank you thank you for your comments yes sir okay that's all that is everyone everyone sign up all right we'll move forward U is there any discussion by the board Mr chair I it might be appropriate just for the for the public to perhaps see the presentation that we put forward if if the board would like that would be good yes sir Amy Ferrell budget director with Pasco County's office in management and budget and I'm going to um show a brief presentation about our final millage rates and budget for fiscal year 25 as a result of the earlier conversation that the board had today all right I'm on all right so our agenda here it's it it'll be pretty light so we're going to touch base on what happened at our first public hearing then we'll do a quick recap on what happened during the earlier session today and we'll go over some fiscal year 25 budget highlights and recap of the

long process that got us to hear um show you the tentative millage rates and then how those morphed through our earlier discussion today um through the county administrator's recommendations and then the board's Direction and then um proceed with the rest of the hearing all right so our first public hearing was two weeks ago on September 3rd at that time the board did adopt zero Mills for the parks Capital maintenance mstu and the board directed staff to come back with some scenarios that included establishing a roads rehabilitation services mstu while also providing a reduction from the general fund revenue and so earlier today the board did vote to direct staff to come back this evening with a general fund millage rate of 7.42 N2 which is down from the 7.57 Mills that the board adopted last year the board also directed us to realign $6 million from the Hudson Library project to the paving program and so those changes will be reflected in the slides that we now will see oh and the roads rehabil rehabilit thank you rehabilitation services mstu millage rate um the board gave us direction to set that at 0.452 for tonight's hearing which is down from the 0.518 4 m it was from July and the first public hearing and I do have a slide later on that will show you what that translates into in terms of reduction thank you Mike all right so our 25 budget highlights so I'm sorry can you go back one slide yes ma'am we also took $6 million from a capital project and moved it over yep that's the library to help with the paving yep yeah just want to make sure we say that yeah yes thank you I do all right so our 25 budget um a big piece of it is continuing to provide essential Premier Services that the community has come to expect from us we're also prioritizing keeping the public safe with the sheriff's operating budget jail expansion Personnel so that way when the um or that's the slow build up so we can staff it once the Full Construction is completed and we're continuing to grow our fire response capability we're maintaining a competitive compensation for our team members to make sure that we can retain strong talent and higher strong Talent um we're also streamlining our development and expanding our infrastructure we're investing in our road infrastructure in the right way by getting rid of the old pvas program and moving to this um mstu and we're also being good stewards of our existing infrastructure making sure that we're providing those Timely reinvestments included in that is facilities and also that bullet right above right so making timely reinvestments in our road infrastructure to make sure that our people are safe when they're driving and our First Responders are safe when they need to get out there and respond and help our citizens all right so if I take our big budget and I break it down into some key

components right so the biggest piece is our operating so think of our operating in terms of things like ensuring our team has the appropriate tools to successfully and efficiently complete the tasks throughout their day they have PPE necessary when they're out in the field think of things like safety vests so they're clearly visible when they're on the side of the road um think of steel toed shoes that will keep their feet safe think of stretchers that'll safely get people from accidents into ambulances while also keeping our first responder safe and we'll pivot to Capital another one of our big pie chunks so when there we've got things like a waste to energy plan expansion we've got wastewater treatment plan expansions Road capacity projects sidewalk projects storm water projects just to name a few all right so if I now look at the revenue side of our budget that bottom gray slide is our advm taxes so that's our general tax that's our fire mstu or roads mstu if I were to move up that's clockwise so the the larger blue our charges for service that's things like our water services our solid waste our ambulance transport fees um the permits fees and special assessments that's the green little sliver right there so that's things like B building permits and plan review fees things like that all right so now if I pivot to the expense side of our budget so that green pie slice that's our physical environment that's our water utility Solid Waste storm Waters in there um the public safety piece that lighter blue to the bottom right that includes the sheriff our Corrections Department our fire rescue team if I keep moving to the other big piece under General government that's things like um it infrastructure and maintenance Facilities Management our constitutional officers save for the sheriff um and some unfunded State mandates come out of that big pie all right so let's hone in on our general fund so that is um by and large one of the biggest Revenue sources in there is the general tax so if you look at this big blue piece plus that yellow sliver that says inflation that part of the general fund budget is making sure that we're able to continue to provide those Premier Services that our community has come to expect from our team the green sliver 4% those are things that we have labeled requirements those are Staffing the jail expansion that's the fourth shift for fire rescue that is our compensation and study that is our wage increases for our Corrections Officers and our firefighters per their contract the 5% grayish blue that's our Capital investments from the general fund and then a small sliver of what we're calling enhancements think of those things as positions to meet growth a department might need a few more staff members in order to provide the same level of service or maybe there's a new program that they're looking to

do all right so now if I were to break that down into types of services provided you will see that 52% of our general fund allocation is for Public Safety so that's Sheriff Corrections our fire team and our administrative team that supports our Public Safety Branch then we've got General government which is what I had listed before it infrastructure and maintenance facilities management our other constitutional officers unfunded State mandates um culture and recreation that's our parks and libraries all right so the first bit on this list are some of those unfunded State mandates that we had talked about anything that's bold and italicized would fall under that um unfunded State mandate the rest on that list are things that the board has decided to fund all right so we do now have of our constitutional officer proposed budgets um most of them saw some increase except the supervisor of elections next year's an off cycle so um as per usual we do see a decrease on those off cycle years where he um doesn't need as much for his operations all right so the sheriff's budget includes 40 additional deputies the sheriff is funding 20 new deputies with his 40% of his increased budget and the board is matching um another 20 deputies for that we've also included some one-time expenses like SWAT vehicles and armored Vans upgraded forensic unit resources a pole bar to keep his equipment safe um starting up his gap insurance funding all right in this budget is a we've got a five-year um Capital Improvement plan to the tune of $ 1.8 billion budget but remember tonight we're just adopting the fiscal year 25 amount which is that First Column we we like to present the 5-year look but we do adopt on a um single year basis now if I were to break down our transportation engineering Capital into um large buckets by type of work you can see what we're putting towards capacity think New Roads major maintenance multimodal that's a lot of your pedestrian sidewalk things like that bike trails um safety and intersections and Signal updates all right so this chart here are the tentative Mill rates from the first public hearing now like I said based off this morning we are coming to you with a final adopted budget recommendation that decreases two of the millage rates on this Slide the first operating General millage that has come down and the roads rehabilitation services MSU in the fourth line that one has also come down all right so earlier today the County Administrator made a recommendation to decrease the general fund operating millage from 7.57 Mills to 7.42 N2 the board voted for me and my team to come back with a budget to reflect those changes the um Mike do you want to go over your recommended sure I I'll just recap what I what I had mentioned is you know um we had um we had gone back for the board's Direction after the first public hearing and and listening to what the public and the feedback that the board

had given uh with with the idea that we needed to go ahead and make some reductions um in in in spending and so we uh we took a deeper look at our our Tiff Paving funds I won't get into the detail of that but those are funds that would have ordinarily been utilized for road paving we knew that with the parks MSU coming on board and the board's uh prioritization of Public Safety that uh we we felt that we could fund additional deputies for the sheriff uh to to help satisfy his ask he requested a total of 60 deputies in his in his his budget I think between the board and the sheriff we were able to forward 40 deputies which I think is is a fantastic uh nod to Public Safety but we also took an even deeper look and uh recognized that um while there was while there's still this additional need in public works for Paving repairs landscaping and those types of things that uh it would be prudent to go ahead and and and curl back $35 million on a recurring basis back to the taxpayers and so that was that was the first point we also look to op imiz the timing of our Public Safety staff members and so we are expanding the jail we will need to hire more Corrections Officers we are opening new fire stations at a at a pretty rapid clip uh however the timing of of construction and hiring uh we took a very deep detailed look at how we could make those timings work even better uh it's it's already a factor but we we looked at that and I felt comfortable uh on a recurring basis cutting back an additional $2 million back to the taxpayers on on that front with the understanding that with future valuation increases we will have to pay for those at some point in time but but I think for the time being we can we can do without uh reducing new Investments again uh there is a lot of important things that that I think that we need to do uh but there are some things that can wait so cut a little bit into the facilities reinvestment budget that we had set aside uh that fixes things like air conditioning uh that that does does a lot of things for our current public buildings but you know uh taking a little bit of a 20% reduction in that I I think I think we can we can do without and you know handle those things on an emergency basis if we need to as well as those enhancement that that that Amy was talking about um you know what we we don't have to hire all the new staff that we necessarily need we can do a little bit more uh with with what we currently have all of that in conjunction at the same time not making any reductions to the Constitutional budgets again the the sheriff needs additional dollars to do to do his job we are not recommending we we touch any of that and as Amy astutely pointed out 90% of our existing budget 90% is already going towards public you know those those services such as Public Safety our facilities management our parks and our libraries um half of it going to Public Safety in in and of itself we estimate that even though that's about a 7 and a quar million dollar annual savings uh that over five

years with a compounding effect of growth it actually equates to about a $43 million savings uh to taxpayers over the the next 5 years uh by making that that simple reduction so we heard what you said uh and uh I'm I'm happy that the team was able to help answer that call next Slide the uh the remainder the remainder then of our discussion focused on the the um road paving mstu and that that Paving mstu millage is a significant reduction than what was originally proposed and Mike yes chairman go ahead and for the gentleman that asked about is Paving a Subs he's already pay yeah I want to cover that actually and I'll I'll hit on that in just a second so uh again the board was presented with options again we have A2 billion doll Road problem in this County uh the current the current means of of Paving that is the citizens must vote to tax themselves uh if they want their roads fixed and that is put the board in between disputes with with citizens and folks making the calls to when a road should be paved or not paved our public works department has an excellent program that they have developed through this road paving mstu to basically take take that uh and and use a science-based approach and do Road re rehabbing when road rehabbing is needed so in other words we may not need to go and completely Mill and repave a road we can simply use Rejuvenation strategies which are pennies on the dollar compared to complete Road reconstruction and and repaving projects which again I think one of the gentlemen that came forward talked about a $4,300 uh past assessment for for for his share of the road uh you know the cost to do a reju that that could be the cost of an entire rejuvenation for an entire Street versus a a uh a reconstruction project to answer the question regarding pvas this board also directed us when we were adopting uh the new pvas program to retire pvas and to avoid sort of that trap of double Taxation and so as such past loans actually we haven't even put them on the roles this year uh those P basses are not on there and so folks will not be taxed again for the road for those that paid in advance like this gentleman said um whatever amount um would would be remaining on on a normal payment plan that amount we we have an administrative process that we will develop to refund those dollars so for example I wrote down $4,300 for this particular gentleman if that was a 10-year p and let's say he was one year into pay it the rest of his neighbors were one year into paying technically he would be $430 would be technically spent because that's what his neighbors would have already paid but the difference between the $4,300 and the $430 that remainder would be refundable because that's essentially what we're refunding is those that opted to not do those that opted to do a payement plan I hope that makes sense but basically it's the unpaid the unid his head yes okay good uh but we'll we'll have an administrative process for that that'll

be be developed to go forward board on that so um I see the board may want to have some discussion so Mr whitean thank you thank you chairman Mr so when folks receive the reimbursement the example you're using with the gentleman in the crowd is a is it plan for the clerk to send them a check directly I don't I don't have the details yeah I don't have the details on how we will do that I mean I I you know we're we do recognize that we need $6 million of of money up front to do those refunds so I mean I I assume there would be a cash outlay Mr chairman if I can yes sir there the clerk would not be just figuring out who owes money or who's owed money and sent checks there there will be an application process where somebody applies for a refund from the county and and then County Administration sends that request to to the clerk's office and a board check goes out out to them issuing them that refund thank you Mr County attorney well I certainly hope that should this thing move forward that we don't have to wait for folks to apply to get their money back that they you know we do some sort of PR campaign that way folks can can get what's theirs uh back in their pocket yeah we'll we'll have that advertised on the website and how that administrative process will will go forward thank you yeah so ultimately where we um during the during the course of the discussion this afternoon um the 0 452 uh Mills would generate I'll just say approximately 19 million of money that would be utilized towards Paving again um you know every every amount is is substantial when it comes to doing that I believe uh Mr mckl stated that that would pave approximately 65 miles of local roads and 10 miles of arterial collector roads for next year which is inclusive of a almost was remiss the the red ction in one of the library capital projects right so the Hudson Library renovation was part of a voter approved General obligation bond prices went up we weren't able to afford to do that so we've added that to the capital plan but we've reduced the budget by six million and are looking to add that to Paving so essentially um performing at a higher level of of paving at least for next year um but but still trying to be sensitive to where where that rate is set um so uh and then of course then the board directed uh us to reduce the general fund millage uh as recommended to 7.42 N2 next slide just a comment chair and just also that including just to tell everybody um in that uh Paving budget there is uh they will be doing sidewalks as well so that's been a big concern with the schools and kids walking and so that will happen as well and fixing some drainage we we have a number correct Road related range we have a number of we have a number of programs and again uh the need is is longer typically like I said we have A2 billion doll problem in the county so well if we can tackle it $20 million at

a time great um I I do think that uh this will be one one one tax that you will see that uh the results of that publicly yeah so this this slide here kind of shows where we started and where we have ended up um so if you look in July which is when we set the the actual trim and this is what is published on everyone's tax notices we started with a general fund millage rate of 7.57 um a parks mstu and a roads mstu you can see uh you can do the quick math what the cost per $100,000 of taxable value is on that during the first public hearing the board adopted zero on the parks mstu so that $17.12 um was was was reduced uh immediately uh during this morning session when we came back and and what we're proposing to you from where we started is is an additional additional reduction in the general fund millage as well as what was proposed on the roads mstu so essentially the board the board has um looked at reducing uh $42 52 cents per $100,000 of taxable value as a result of of the public hearing process and and understanding uh the budget this point I'll turn it back over to Amy okay all right so then here is the table of the updated millage rates and like we said um the two that changed was the General operating and the roads Rehabilitation mstu from what had you had been seeing throughout the budget up to this point all right so any further board discussion any other discussion see man I sent um Mr carala a page from how Florida Count's compare and I've got one more and I I'll send it straight to you Dan D rilla yeah so sending you one more um I just wanted the public to see this because I um and I think you hear a little bit about the struggles that we have as County Commissioners when we we know that people have Financial challenges but we also know we we have a responsibility to provide services so we work very hard up here to find the right balance and it's not easy um it's not easy so um I this is um from the how Florida counties compare it's done by Florida ta tax watch they take the same information from all the counties it's not always able to be Apples to Apples um but let me just say Pasco County is the 11th largest county in the state of Florida and we are different from many other counties because we don't have any big cities so in in other cities say Tampa Miami oh Miami dat's different um Orlando the city May fund their parks and Rex department and their libraries we don't have that here I don't think we have any cities that really have any parks where kids go play football or baseball or any of those things it all falls on the County government so we're a County government that has some responsibilities of a city so as the 11th largest county in the state and I'm sorry it's so fuzzy this says average

and no one on WebEx that's different from who spoke earlier oh can he speak again on these items yes it's it's a separate public hearing okay on this particular one is there anyone wish to speak to this item okay um with that is there a motion to adopt the uh rate of 2.12 225 M Mr chair y 2. 2 21225 Mills for the fire uh Municipal service taxing unit Mr chair may I yes commissioner Stark Comm made motion I'll second the motion uh Mr John Michael no uh no battling this year but thank you guys for for all you do that goes without saying we thank them all the time for the help they give our sentences okay I've got a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I uh the same sign on May or okay seeing none five it pass Five to zero I will now provide a summary of the two new Municipal service taxing unit mstu budgets stating the millage rates the percentage change from the roll back rate and the reasons for the change the park Capital maintenance mstu fund was not approved at the first public hearing and then and therefore has a tax levy 0.0000 Ms um this is the first year that this millage is proposed to be levied so there is no calculated roll back rate I would ask the board to accept public comment and then vote on the parks Capital maintenance mstu millage rate okay does anyone wish to speak to the uh board regarding the parks Capital maintenance mstu that went away that went away it's zero so that went to zero so we have no maintenance for any part on for a few Future Park so okay no public comment seeing no one uh entertain a motion approval I got a motion uh a motion to adopt the MERS rate of 0.000000 Mills for the parks uh Capital maintenance MST so I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I reluctantly okay all oppos like sign seeing none hearing none uh passes 5 Z the roads Rehabilitation mstu fund has a recommended tax levy of 0.452 Mills this is the first year that this millage is proposed to be levied so there is no calculated roll back rate this millage rate will generate 19.4 million in property tax revenue to maintain the County's roadway Network I would ask the board to accept public comment and then vote on the roads Rehabilitation mstu military and Associated budget since this is the first time this millage rate will be levied State statutes indicate that a unanimous vote is required to Levy any millage rate okay is there anyone wish to speak to the uh roads Rehabilitation mstu seeing no one um is there a motion to adopt the millage rate of 0.452 Mills for the roads Rehabilitation mstu so mooved got a motion second and a

second all those in favor say I I I I all opposed like sign he none motion pass 5 Z I will now provide a summary of the nine voter approved Debt Service millage rates these millage rates are levied to repay the debt service for the general General obligation bonds to include two tranches each for the jail projects the Parks and Recreation projects and the libraries projects as well as three tranches for the fire rescue projects the nine individual millage rates are listed on table one in your handout rather than read this chart into the record we have provided copies to each commissioner board records and members of the audience the total of the nine voter approved Debt Service millage rates is 0.241 Ms this is a decrease of 0.316 Ms from the 2024 Act ual millage rates of 02717 Ms I asked the board to accept public comment and then vote on each Debt Service millage rate there is no vote requirement for these millit rates so a simple majority or three votes is needed okay does anyone wish to speak to this item see another one oh hold on there for General obligation Bond military does that include Library there yes one yes name and address all right name and address when you get to the podium Brian on file Brian Paris on file um I think we should actually fund the parks over the libraries myself personally most people can get books online these days more people I see using the parks to exercise and you know just to get out and you get you know people need that that's a good mental break just to be able to hear the birds this is bonded indebtedness this is not their budget it's not a budget it's not the it's not the this is this is the voter approved bonds that went to libraries Parks fire rescue and jail so it's not about raising the millage then it's not one that we approve okay well either way we should still fund Parks over libraries I mean we're past that okay well whatever I'm I'm sorry sir next year thank you okay uh all right so so yes sir for purposes of the audience this is the the four voter approved General obligation bonds that the that the board that voters approved the board took to funded these projects with bonded indebtedness this is paying back those Bond holders that gave the county the money at the millage rates that were necessary um based on the dollars that were received so it it is it is an obligation of the board to basically pay off their car loan on these projects and I believe this was in 2018 they were all issued it the the the public approved it in 2018 and the years that are on this are the actual tranches of funding that were taken incrementally to fund projects whether they were in Parks whether they were the jail whether they were fire rest but it was our and I think we got the greatest citizens in in Pasco County because they all approv these by vote to the public

and it wasn't something we did it was something they did and they love our County just as well as we do we got the best citizens ever in Pasco all right so can I just um can I have um our um County manager Mike can you explain uh to the public that uh we are putting some money in Parks it's just not in the form of an mstu yes um yes commissioner so as part of the budget when when the parks mstu in its current form failed and the board wants to take this up next year um you know to to kind of look at look at alternatives to it uh we we did make sure that we restored money that we would have reallocated back to the parks budget so uh while it's not not probably nearly what would have been generated under the parks mstu it still restores the parks budget to where it was to make sure that there isn't a a reduction in where we are and that was about 1.3 million so about a million to do uh restorative Capital type type projects through our Parks as well as another $300,000 uh to do Parks maintenance okay thank you for clearing that up I just wanted the public to know that there is money going to Parks but not that was going to be 8 million realiz 1 million we we also got a Parks impact fee approved that when the new homeowner or new person moves in and they bring their kids and they're adding kids to all the fields we have an impact fee with parks that will help build those fields in the future so in the future on the short term we're going to be a little short of Maintenance but in the future we've got got to readdress that one day but we are get going to get in the money but people that don't live here right now will be paying for the new parks yes sir that's correct the board board adopted a higher impact fee to assess new development uh for the investment in Parks that's reflected in the Parks Capital program right uh that that has been adopted with with budget there were some folks worried about that when when we were getting answer questions one comment and also just looking out for the citizens because we heard you and we did not want a Parks tax and a road tax so we took that into consideration as well okay all right is there a motion to adopt a millage rate of 0.256 Mills for the 2019a jail facility Bond move Pro second I got a motion second all those in favor say I I I um those votes same sign hear none it passed 5 is there a motion to adopt the millage rate of 0.0204 Mills for the 2019b fire rescue Bond Mo approve second second got a motion in second all those in favor say I I all oppos like sign motion pass 5 okay is there a motion to adopt a millage rate of 0.96 Ms for the 2019 C parks recreation and natural resources Bond move second I got a motion the second all those in favor say I I those opposed like sign hear none motion pass 5 uh is there a motion to adopt the millage rate of 0 0094 Ms for the

2019d uh libraries Bond so move second I got a motion second all those in favor say I I I all opposed like sign here none motion pass [Music] 5 is there a motion to adopt a millit rate of 0.0 416 Mills for the 2020 a fire rescue Bond approval okay I got a motion in second all those in favor say I I all opposed like sign hearing none motion pass by Z is there a motion to adopt a millage rate of [Music] 0.0 0 187 Mills right 0.0087 oh okay 0.0087 Mills for the 2021 a libraries Bond sub move second got a motion and second all those in favor say I I all oppos like sign here none motion pass 5 Z have is there a motion to adopt a millage rate of 01073 Ms for the 20 21b Jael Bond move second got a motion second all those in favor say I I I all oppos like sign hearing none motion pass 5 Z is there a motion to adopt a millage rate of 0.0131 Mills for the 2022a parks recreation and natural resources Bond so move second got a motion and second all those in favor say I I I all those that oppose like sign hearing none motion pass 5 is there a motion to adopt a millage rate of 0.44 Mills for the 20 24a fire rescue Bond so move second motion is second all in favor say I I all opposed like sign hearing none and motion pass 5 Z I will now provide a summary of the remainder of the budget if you refer to table to in your handout you will see by you will see the revenue sources and allocations identified by type without regard to individual funds as stated prior to any action taken by the board tonight the budget totals 2 b249 m943 4177 net of inter fund transfers I would ask the board to accept public comment then vote on the budget there is no vote requirement for the budget so a simple majority or three votes is needed okay uh we will now receive public comment on the budget does anyone wish to speak to this item see see no one um I will entertain a motion to adopt fiscal year 2025 budget as outlined by staff including those adjustments made uh since the tenative public hearing uh presented to the County Commission uh at its regular uh meeting earlier today so move second I got a motion and second all in favor say I I I all opposed right sign hear none motion pass 5 Z the actions you have taken today has set the final aggregate millage at 9.85 97 Mills which reflects an increase of 6.95% above the rolled back rate I will now read the resolution adopting the millage rates by title only a resolution of the board of County commissioners of

the Pasco County Florida adopting the final leving of adval taxes for Pasco County for fiscal year 2025 providing for an effective date okay is there a motion for approval of the the resolution adopting the final uh leving of uh ad taxes for Pasco County for the year 2025 so moved got a motion second second all those in favor say I I allo oppose like sign hear none the motion pass 5 Z I will now read the resolution adopting the budget by title only a resolution of the board of County commissioners of Pasco County Florida adopting the final budget for fiscal year 2025 providing for an effective date okay is there any motion for approval of the uh resolution adopting the final budget for the Pasco County for fiscal year 2025 so move second got a motion and second all those in favor say I I I all opposed like sign hearing none motion pass 5 Z this concludes the final public uh hearing to adopt the final millage rates and the final budget for fiscal year 202 25 tip TI any other thing good ready where's our recycle B