FY22 First Public Hearing: Commissioners Adopt FY22 Proposed Millage Rate & Tentative Budget

MONROE COUNTY, FL – The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners met today to discuss the proposed $457.3 million Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) budget. The budget includes the Board of County Commissioners, the constitutional officers, like the Sheriff’s Office, Tax Collector, Clerk of Court, and other things like the Tourist Development Council, capital projects, reserves, and debt service.

Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi and Budget and Finance Director Tina Boan presented the tentative budget with FY22 estimates of residential real estate trends, taxable property values, sales taxes, and state shared revenues, along with fund balance, reserves, and general fund.

The tentative budget was built on the estimated Countywide taxable property value increase, which exceeds last year’s historically high figure. As of now, the County continues to have the lowest millage rate in the State of Florida. For all revenue sources, the estimates present a decrease of the current FY21 aggregate millage rate by .5 percent from 3.3435 to 3.3273, which is 5.47 percent above the rollback rate for the FY22 budget.

Some of the FY22 budget highlights include:

• Decreases FY21 aggregate millage rate by .5 percent, lowest in the State of Florida.
• Reflects a property value increase with a total value exceeding $32 billion, a historic high.
• Assumes economic return of 2019 revenue levels with modest growth.
• Includes return to pre-COVID-19 operational levels with Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation increases for vendor contracts, state-mandated retirement rates, higher cost of fuel and materials, increased utility costs, vehicle replacements, and modest salary adjustments.
• Continued stabilization of fund balances, which has shown prudent to financial resilience during Hurricane Irma and COVID-19.
• More than $2 million in funding for community-based organizations.

With the proposed budget and Countywide average property values, a homesteaded residential property with an appraised assessed taxable value of $385,603 in 2022 would have a $13.73 increase in the property tax for the FY22 year with the tentative budget, which is $1.14 per month.

The Final Public Hearing will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 15 at 5:05 p.m. at the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo. At this meeting, the BOCC adopts the final millage rate and final budget.

The Monroe County Office of Budget and Finance provides coordination and development of the budget. The FY20 budget was $472.7 million, which included continued Hurricane Irma recovery, and the FY21 was $460.3 million with COVID-19 expenditure reductions in place. The office continues to work on Hurricane Irma and COVID-19 impacts while still providing for the department’s daily operations, program enhancements, and capital projects and improvements.

For more information about the budgeting process, visit www.monroecounty-fl.gov/budgetandfinance.