The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) heard an introduction to its budget season on Tuesday while also discussing how the county can partner with community resource centers moving forward.  

The two items were discussed at two separate special meetings on Tuesday.  

Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby presented an overview of the budget season ahead along with two major considerations for the commissioners. He said the county has started with a conservative estimate that property tax values will increase 5% this year, and the final numbers will come from the state in July.  

First, Crosby said staff are tracking bills in Tallahassee regarding how governments can use Municipal Service Taxing Units (MSTU). If the Florida Legislature takes action, he said the county will be forced to adapt, but he added that county staff have considered rolling its MTSU into the property tax.  

Crosby said that would cause the millage rate to jump to around 9 mills after many years of steadily dropping the rate. The county has lowered the rate for the past eight years, but those reductions have still been considered tax increases because of not hitting the rollback rate.  

Crosby said he’d like to see the millage rate stay at least below 9 mills, and he said staff will look at cuts to make that possible. However, Crosby said Alachua County, while not the highest, will never be in the lowest counties for taxes. He said the big reason is the University of Florida and all the land in the middle of the urban core that is off the tax rolls.  

A university in the middle of a metro area is different from the land of the tax roll like a state forest, Crosby said. Alachua County and the city of Gainesville still have to provide services to UF that aren’t needed in a forest, like fire response, law enforcement and space in the jail. 

He said one of the biggest services the county provides is making roads large enough to accommodate the traffic that UF draws. He said a payment in lieu of taxes would be a valid conversation to have—a sentiment previously expressed by city officials.  

Commissioner Ken Cornell noted that UF is more than four times the population size of Alachua County’s second-largest city. But unlike the smaller municipalities, Cornell said the university doesn’t pay property taxes.  

The second issue to consider is a shift in the fire assessment rate.  

Crosby said rapid increases over the past several years in property values have shifted the equation used to determine the assessment per parcel. To stay surefooted legally, he said the county needs to raise the Tier 1 rate (paid by every parcel) and lower the Tier 2 rate (paid as a multiplier of property values).  

Crosby said the change would collect the same amount of money for Alachua County Fire Rescue but shift the burden onto parcels with less property value—likely lower-income households.  

Commissioner Anna Prizzia said the change is the opposite of what the county wants to do. She said the county also wants to provide good salaries and services but asked about reducing costs or changing methodologies.  

County staff said not every county uses the same methodology, with some assessments determined only by property values. The BOCC voted for the current methodology around five years ago.  

Crosby said the fire master plan will come before the BOCC at a future meeting and the fire chief can discuss budget options. 

Cornell said the BOCC looked at a lot of other fire assessments in the state and nation before picking the current one, which he called the least regressive. He said the county should have addressed this last year and that the rate has been flat since implementing the new methodology.  

Prizzia said the county could make the assessment an MSTU and called that option less regressive.  

At the second special meeting, the BOCC heard a presentation based on a survey of 11 community resource centers in the county. The survey showed the main needs are for office equipment, more staff, more volunteers and more vehicles.  

The centers surveyed have 27 full-time employees, eight part-time employees and 89 volunteers.  

The county asked for the survey in December as a way to begin researching ways to assist the centers.  

Cornell made a motion to identify how the centers are structured (municipal backing, nonprofit or grassroots), to ask for operating budgets, and to have staff work with the Children’s Trust of Alachua County and the Community Foundation of North Central Florida regarding the process for helping the centers.  

The motion passed unanimously.