County’s FY 2021-22 budget gets preliminary approval

Posted On: September 7, 2021

With a new fiscal year about to get under way on Oct. 1, Volusia County government’s new budget and the property tax rates that help support it have moved one step closer to final adoption.

Tuesday night, the Volusia County Council held the first of two required public hearings on the new budget and tax rates for the 2021-22 fiscal year. While it was the first public hearing, the council has been ironing out the details of the budget for several months. The budget proposal has changed some over that time, but Tuesday’s public hearing didn’t result in any additional adjustments.

The general fund, which finances the services that the county provides to all of Volusia and is supported by a countywide property tax, has been tentatively set at $349.1 million. The council has tentatively settled on a general fund property tax rate of 5.3812 mills – lower than the current rate of 5.4500 mills. The council reduced the current rate for next year after ordering approximately $2.8 million in cuts to the general fund budget at a special meeting last week. Several council members said that they would have liked to have reduced the budget even more, but the increased staffing demand in public safety coupled with cost increases largely due to inflation – things like retirement payments, insurance, worker’s compensation, energy, construction and contracted services – made further cuts too difficult without dipping further into the county’s reserves. The proposed budget includes funds for several new public safety positions, including nine firefighters and a part-time fire inspector, two EMTs, two paramedics, two ambulance supply technicians, six corrections officers and one corrections analyst.

The property tax rates for the county’s other tax funds have been tentatively set as follows:

Library Fund                                         0.5174 mills

Volusia ECHO                                        0.2000 mills

Volusia Forever                                      0.2000 mills

East Volusia Mosquito Control                0.1781 mills

Ponce De Leon Port Authority                0.0845 mills

Municipal Service District                       2.1083 mills

Silver Sands Bethune Beach MSD           0.0144 mills

Fire Rescue District                                3.8412 mills

While all taxpayers pay into the county general fund, library fund and the voter-approved Volusia ECHO and Volusia Forever funds, the location of the residence determines whether any of the other tax funds apply.

As currently proposed, the county’s overall operating budget for the next fiscal year, including the general fund, is $961 million. Some of the highlights in the proposed budget include setting aside money to support future plans to expand and renovate the Port Orange Library, relocate the Pierson Public Library and renovate Fire Station 15 in Daytona Beach and Fire Station 34 in Osteen.

The second and final budget hearing has been scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 21.