Orange budget has hike for sheriff ’s office

Proposal includes funds for Tangelo Park Y project

Orange County’s proposed $5.2 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year includes $100 million to buy environmentally sensitive lands, about $14 million more for the sheriff ’s office than last year and a plan to rebuild the shuttered Tangelo Park YMCA as a community center with a pool.

Despite the lingering impact of COVID-19 on tourism, the county’s signature industry, most tax revenues are rebounding well enough to allow some projects shelved last year by the pandemic to get dusted off. Among them will be a new headquarters for Orange County Animal Services.

The proposed 2021-22 budget, up about $400 million from last year, includes a 3.5% increase in salaries for nonbargaining employees.

The pandemic led county leaders to freeze nonunion salaries and wages last year and halt nonessential spending.

If adopted by county commissioners in September, the property tax rate will be set at 4.43 mills for a 14th consecutive year, meaning homeowners will pay about $4.43 for every $1,000 of the assessed taxable value of their property. But while tax the rate didn’t change, some tax bills will still go up because real estate assessed values have risen over the last year.

Property taxes are estimated to generate $716

million for the county’s main budget fund.

“Our economy is recovering but we are not fully back to our pre-pandemic financial strength,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said.

County leaders offered few details about the $100-million pledge to acquire environmentally sensitive lands during budget hearings.

But officials said a staff presentation will lay out objectives next month at a county commission meeting.

In budget documents, the mayor said the funds would be used to “preserve our valuable natural landscape.”

Demings, a former Orlando police chief who also served as sheriff for nearly a decade, said public safety remains a top priority in the budget.

It includes $2 million to underwrite recommendations of a citizens-led task force to reduce gun violence.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina also will get $295 million for his new budget, up from $281 million a year ago.

He said his department — which currently has 2,359 employees, including 1,657 sworn officers — hopes to add 18 new positions, including five school resource officers for each of the new Orange County schools expected to open in August and four deputies to bolster the behavioral-response unit.

That unit also uses mental health professionals and has responded to nearly 1,000 calls for service while making zero arrests, Mina said.

Those calls led the unit to send 28 people temporarily to mental health care facilities under Baker Act authority, he said.

Florida’s Baker Act, named for Maxine Baker, a former Miami lawmaker who led a state House Committee on Mental Health, allows doctors, mental health professionals, judges and law enforcement to provide emergency mental health services for those who may be unable to determine their treatment needs by allowing for involuntary commitment for up to 72 hours if they have shown violent or suicidal signs of mental illness.

“Not every mental health crisis involves someone being Baker Acted nor should it,” the sheriff said.

Kurt Peterson, who heads the county’s office of management and budget, said the fiscal plan also will add $12.1 million to an affordable housing fund, set aside $4 million to improve the former Tangelo Park YMCA and revisit plans to replace the county’s antiquated animal services facility.

The county has not yet revealed the site for the 70,000-square-foot replacement, last estimated to cost about $34 million.

The existing structure dates back to 1986 long before the county created an adoption program, now animal services’ cornerstone mission.