Archer proposes 15.9% increase in millage rate for 2026 budget

Archer Mayor Fletcher Hope advocated for a volunteer citizen advisory committee. Photo by Lillian Hamman
Archer Mayor Fletcher Hope advocated for a volunteer citizen advisory committee.
Photo by Lillian Hamman

The Archer City Commission unanimously approved a tentative tax increase for the 2025-26 fiscal year during a regular meeting on Wednesday, with a hike to the city’s millage rate from 5.5479 mills to 6.4322 mills. 

The rate would be a 21.568% increase from the 5.2910 rollback rate and will continue addressing the city’s ongoing financial issues. The struggles were further exasperated on Sept. 9 when the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office arrested Archer accounting employee Justin Southard for stealing more than $14,000 from the city. 

The city of Newberry’s Assistant City Manager and Chief Financial Officer, Dallas Lee, volunteered his services to construct Archer’s budget and presented it to the commission. 

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He said the city’s total general fund budget for the upcoming year would be $886,051, with $27,000 in revenues over expenditures. Lee proposed the city split the $27,000 in half to go towards its Wild Space and Public Places repayment and its water fund. 

Archer’s water fund revenues are proposed at $316,246, solid waste at $130,000 and $14,250,000 for its wastewater fund.  

In order to address a $160.59 monthly deficit in the city’s enterprise funds, the commission adopted Lee’s suggestion to switch insurance providers to AssuredPartners brokerage and risk management. Lee said the company is used by the city of Newberry and would save Archer $18,000. 

Archer’s 2025-26 budget also includes a reduction in recreation employee hours to 30 hours per week, elimination of a contract with Westfarms, hiring a part-time bookkeeper at 20 hours per week, one part-time city manager at $45,000 annually, a water rate increase by $3.50 per month and a solid waste rate increase of $0.50 per month. 

Multiple citizens during public comment called on the commission for more transparency to justify why their rates were going up and more budget workshops were planned. A public hearing to adopt the final budget will be held at 6 p.m. on Sept. 24. 

“I would like to see, before you raise my taxes for a person who’s on a fixed income, what you’re going to do to stop this bleeding from happening,” said Charles Tufano. “Yes, I’m emotional about it. What’s been going on in our city for over a year and a half now is unacceptable. If you can’t do the job, then step down.” 

Mayor Fletcher Hope passed the gavel during the meeting to make a motion to set up a volunteer citizen advisory committee.  

He said he hoped the committee would provide oversight opportunities by allowing volunteers to assist staff in the depositing process for preventing incidents like what happened with Southard, oversee Land Development Regulation reviews and comprehensive plan amendments, and help with code enforcement. 

Hope said most of the municipalities surrounding Archer, like Gainesville, have citizen advisory committees and that the help would be necessary as the city’s economic development grows. 

“It’s a volunteer group of people that builds trust in the citizenry that would ensure [staff were doing their jobs] and support the staff that we have,” he said. 

Vice Mayor Iris Bailey said the things Hope wanted the committee to do were already the staff’s jobs, which volunteers shouldn’t be doing. She and Commissioner Marilyn Green agreed the commission should first ask interim City Manager Deanna Alltop what she needs help with before forming the committee. 

Fletcher’s motion for the committee died with no one else favoring it. 

“There are some changes that need to possibly take place, there are some things that we can watch a little bit better,” Green said. “Most people don’t want people over their shoulders, watching every little thing. I believe that maybe the ball got dropped as far as the situation that we just went through [with Southard], we definitely don’t want to throw stones…we need to have a conversation with [Deanna] before we come up with all this. I think we owe her that much respect.” 

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