City approves $70M budget
Casselberry residents will see a reduced millage rate and slight increase in property taxes, but face no increase in utility costs as the City Commission adopted the next fiscal year’s $70.2 million budget on Monday.
The commission decided to lower the rate from 2.99990 mils to 2.9000 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
This newly proposed rate is still higher than the roll back rate of 2.7082, said City Manager Randy Newlon.
“We may be raising taxes overall by way of not reducing our millage rate any further than we have, and it’s going to be advertised as a tax increase,” Newlon said. “The government needs to be able to raise more revenue in order to be able to keep pace with the costs.”
A resident whose home has a market value of $270,663 should expect to pay $52 more a year in city taxes—about $785 next year compared with $733 this year, according to the Seminole County Property Appraiser’s Office.
The $22 million general fund pays for the city’s main operations.
The proposed budget allocates $15.7 million toward capital projects such as park improvement and construction of new government facilities.
The city plans to maintain the utility rate base fee of $11.39 per month.
“We have held the rates for water and sewer services and we just adopted rates that are effective for the next two years,” Newlon said. “We’re not changing our rates at all, we’re just leaving them flat, we’re not letting them rise.”
Newlon said that this is possible because the city used federal COVID-19 relief funds to reinforce the city’s infrastructure and utilities — a preventative measure that may help the city to avoid future issues with flooding and water contamination, said Sara Brady, city spokeswoman.
“If you look at what the city has done investing in its utility system overall and its water system, it’s pretty remarkable,” Brady said. “That’s part of where in this budget
you see where the investment is in the water system and how important it is—but Jackson, [Mississippi] is an example of when it’s neglected.”
The public water system in Jackson, Mississippi recently collapsed due to heavy rains and flooding, leaving the majority of citizens without access to clean water. Brady said she hopes the citizens of Casselberry know they can rely on their local governments to upkeep utilities and take preventative measures to avoid crises such as this one.
“There’s always a ton of blaming the federal government for no help,” Brady said. “The reality is that municipalities [should] take care of their water systems.”
The federal funds enabled the city to focus on its ongoing beautification and development efforts and its bond-funded capital improvement plan, Newlon said.
Capital improvement plans include the Parks Master Plan, funded by $24 million from a bond referendum approved by voters in 2020 to raise taxes to beautify and develop several of Casselberry’s 17 parks.
The new budget allocates over $9 million toward the plan, from which about $5 million will be allocated to improving Wirz Park, about $2 million for Dew Drop Park and about another $2 million for Sunnytown Park improvements.
Mario Alvarado, owner of the Greater Orlando Soccer Academy, has coached soccer at Sunnytown Park for about seven years. He said the addition of bathrooms and other amenities would make the park safer.
“The facility doesn’t have bathrooms and the parking lot is not enough parking,” Alvarado said. “There [are] no lights during the night… so when the time changes we have to find another facility to be able to work because at 6 o’clock it’s very dark.”
Alvarado said that the lack of bathroom facilities causes a safety issue for his players, as they instead use the woods adjacent to the park where Alvarado said he has seen drug use, sexual activity and homeless people living throughout the years.
Planned improvements for Sunnytown include new bathrooms, a large grassed parking lot and playground equipment.
Other notable capital projects include the construction of a new police station and public works complex, which are both anticipated to be completed in 2023. The city borrowed $10 million for the construction of the police station and $15 million for the public works compound, said Newlon. Both new complexes will house all divisions and running operations for police and public works, respectively.