DeLand City Hall, 120 S. Florida Ave.
It’s that time of year — budgeting season. The DeLand City Commission will hold a series of workshops to crunch the numbers on the city’s 2022-23 budget Monday through Thursday, July 11-14. If necessary, the discussions may extend to Friday, July 15.
Each night, specific departments and topics will be up for discussion. On the first night, Monday, July 11, the series of workshops will open with a discussion of the city’s general fund, the various community redevelopment agencies, and departments, including the city manager’s department, the city clerk, and parks and recreation.
Tuesday, July 12, the discussion will focus on the budget for the city’s Police and Fire departments.
Wednesday, July 13, the city will discuss the proposed millage rate, or the amount of money DeLand residents will pay per $1,000 of taxable property value.
Any topic not finished up on its particular night may continue during the following workshop.
Last year, the City of DeLand’s operating millage rate, or the millage rate passed to fund the city’s general fund, was 6.7841. That means the owner of a home with a taxable value of $200,000 after any exemptions, for example, would pay $1,357 in city property taxes, along with property taxes imposed by the county, School Board, Hospital Authority, etc.
The budget workshops may close out Thursday, July 14, as the City Commission and various departments wrap up discussions, but the city has saved Friday, July 15, as a potential final day if further discussion is necessary.
With prices high due to inflation across the state and country, calls to reduce the budget and millage rate to the “rolled-back rate,” or the rate that would produce the same income as last year’s rate (not counting annexations and new construction), are likely to be high. But with continued growth in the city’s and county’s population — as well as property values — the city may not need as high a millage rate to get the same amount of taxes.
While city commissioners and city staff settle on a preliminary budget and millage rate by the end of the workshops, a final budget and millage rate will not be decided upon until sometime in September.
DeLand’s budget workshops will begin Monday, July 11, at 5:30 p.m. The workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 12 and 13, will also begin at 5:30 p.m., but the Thursday, July 14, workshop will not start until 6:30 p.m. If discussion carries over to Friday, July 15, that workshop will begin at 5:30 p.m.
All budget workshops will take place in the City Commission Chambers at DeLand City Hall, 120 S. Florida Ave. All meetings are open to the public and can also be streamed live on the city’s website, HERE.
