September 9, 2026 Town Council First Budget Hearing — Agenda Breakdown

The tax rate: the same number, counted as a 6.38% increase

What it is. Property tax is charged in mills: one mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property's taxable value. Resolution 2026-47 sets the Town's operating rate for next year at 7.2938 mills, which is $729.38 a year on every $100,000 of taxable value — the value after homestead and other exemptions come off. The rate is not changing. A resident's bill can still rise this year, if the home's taxable value went up. All taxable property in Eatonville is valued at $427,218,601 this year, by the Orange County Property Appraiser. At 7.2938 mills that comes to about $3.1 million in tax bills. The Town budgets 96% of that, $2,991,405, because some bills go unpaid — $220,382 more property tax than this year's budget.

The number is not new. The Town has levied 7.2938 mills for more than a decade; state records show the same rate back to at least 2013, and last year's resolution set the same figure. The state Department of Revenue's 2023 compliance table lists Eatonville at 7.2938, as does its 2013 table.

Why the law still calls it an increase. Every year the state computes a "rolled-back rate": the rate that would raise the same property-tax dollars as last year from the same properties, after values are re-appraised. When values rise, that rate falls. This year Eatonville's rolled-back rate is 6.8565 mills, so keeping the rate at 7.2938 raises more money — and the resolution says so, in the words the law requires: "more than the rolled-back rate of 6.8565 mills by 6.38%." Last year went the other way. The same 7.2938 mills was 0.26% below that year's rolled-back rate of 7.3131, because values had barely moved. The label changed; the rate did not.

Where the vote sits. The resolution is on the consent agenda — Item IV, voted in one motion without discussion unless a member pulls it — ahead of the public hearing at Item V. Florida's budget law, §200.065, runs the hearing in a set order: "the first substantive issue discussed shall be the percentage increase in millage over the rolled-back rate necessary to fund the budget," and "[t]he general public shall be allowed to speak and to ask questions before adoption of any measures." The resolution's own opening "whereas" clause says the Council "adopted Fiscal Year 2026–2027 Tentative Millage Rates following a public hearing." The agenda places the vote before the hearing.

Worth watching. Whether the Chair pulls the resolution from consent and takes it inside the hearing, after the rolled-back discussion and public comment, is the procedural question of the night. The resolution also sets a second, separate rate — the one that would pay off voter-approved borrowing — at zero.

The budget ordinance: how a $187,929 deficit became a balanced fund

What it is. Ordinance 2026-6 adopts the budget for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 "as presented by the Mayor pursuant to the Town Charter." Its opening "whereas" clauses state the budget "in the amount of $8,631,105.00" and date the hearing "Tuesday, September 9, 2026" — September 9 is a Wednesday, as the agenda and the newspaper notice say. Section Three lets the Council amend the budget later by resolution, and adds that "[f]unds may be transferred from within the Departments budget as deemed necessary without Town Council approval by action of this Ordinance." Page 4 carries blank roll-call lines for each of the five members, for the September 9 first reading and for the second on September 21.

The General Fund now balances. The worksheets are the same set posted after the fifth workshop, updated for the sixth. A week ago the General Fund — the Town's main operating account — forecast $5,802,969 in revenue against $5,990,898 in spending, a $187,929 deficit printed under a reminder that state law requires a balanced budget. The September 9 version shows $6,154,427 on both sides. Two things closed the gap:

The revenue side changed in one line of any size: the reserve balance carried forward, the money the Town brings into the year from what it already holds, goes from $33,515 to $384,972. Nothing in the packet says what the reserve balance is or what remains after the draw. The spending side went up, not down, by $163,529 — almost all of it a new department, "542 Project Management," with a Project Manager at $95,000 the schedule marks "New Department & Position," plus the half-time grant coordinator moved over from Finance. The contingency account — money set aside for costs nobody planned for — is still forecast at $0, down from $163,433 this year.

Department by department. Most of the movement is positions shifting between departments, not new money; the real changes are three raises and one new department. Against the version posted a week ago: Police rises $65,920, because code enforcement (a $40,428 position and a $25,000 part-time line) moves in from Development Services and overtime is trimmed from $43,508 to $36,276. Development Services falls $39,909, the code-enforcement move offset by its Planner line rising from $60,000 to $90,000 under a new title, "Planner Director." Finance falls $22,397: the half-time grant coordinator leaves, and the Finance Director's salary rises from $82,082 to $100,000. Administration falls $1,750, as the part-time HR/Risk line drops to $26,250 — which resolves the mismatch flagged last week. Legislative, Legal, Debt Service, Fire, Public Works, the Post Office, Recreation and Special Events are unchanged.

What the worksheets still carry. The Executive/Admin insurance line stays at $318,330, down $112,087 from this year's budget with no note. Legal Counsel stays at $150,000. The TIF line still records $1,789,254 paid to the CRA this year against a $230,000 budget, with $232,136 forecast for next year — a figure the CRA's own proposed budget, posted for its September 14 workshop, does not match. And the budget still contains no CRA fund. The summary lists the General, Capital, Water and Sewer, Refuse and Stormwater funds.

The total in the ordinance. The ordinance's "$8,631,105.00" is, to the dollar, the Capital Fund's revenue and spending (p. 13). It is not the sum of the funds: the five funds' revenues total $17,301,131, and the four day-to-day funds (everything but Capital) total $8,670,026. Last year's ordinance stated $8,663,539, which matched those four funds' revenues in that year's worksheets to within a dollar. In plain terms, the number written into the law matches one fund, not the whole budget, and the packet does not say which total it was meant to be.

Worth watching. A budget that balances by drawing $384,972 from reserves with a $0 contingency has no cushion written into it. Section Three's within-department transfer authority is the tool that would be used if a line runs over. Both are worth a question before the first-reading vote.

The salary schedule: what the sixth workshop changed

What it is. The schedule lists every position with this year's approved salary and next year's proposed one. Set beside the schedule posted after the fifth workshop ("after 8-31-2026"), it shows what the September 3 workshop did:

The elected officials' raises — $32,970 for the Mayor and $18,000 a seat proposed on August 31 — are not in this schedule. The five elected salaries total $39,564, the figure the Town has budgeted for three years. The Finance Director's raise, cut from $135,000 to current pay after August 31, returns at $100,000. Six utility workers — the five in water and sewer and the stormwater Service Worker II — get a flat $2,910 each. The stormwater Utility Tech goes up $8,032, to more than the $55,000 proposed on August 31. Every other line is as posted a week ago; the September 3 breakdown has the full list.

The totals. Payroll would rise about 21% over this year. Salaries across all funds come to $2,574,983, against $2,127,713 approved this year; salaries plus benefits, $3,330,094 against $2,762,467. (A week ago the figures were $2,546,605 and $3,297,765; with the elected raises in on August 31 they were $2,690,362.05 and $3,506,349.)

Worth watching. The packet does not say who proposed the Project Manager position or the $100,000, and no minutes of the September 3 workshop are in it. The hearing is the first place either can be asked about in public. If an elected raise returns before September 21, the charter question — which document sets the pay, an ordinance or a resolution, and when it takes effect — is exactly where the workshops left it.

The other funds: water, sewer, stormwater, refuse, capital

What it is. The two utility funds the Council said on September 1 still needed numbers now have them, and both show a surplus.

Water and Sewer (Fund 400). Revenue is unchanged at $1,646,165, still built on water revenue rising from $500,000 to $700,000 and sewer from $600,000 to $800,000, with no rate ordinance in any packet. Spending rises $16,391 to $1,605,879, all of it the five utility workers' raises and the payroll taxes on them. Surplus: $40,286, down from $56,677 a week ago.

Stormwater (Fund 402). Revenue unchanged at $236,934; spending up $21,326 to $201,100. Surplus: $35,834, down from $57,160. One thing to notice: the fund's salaries line rises $19,942, but the two raises come to $10,942. The other $9,000 is standby and overtime pay, which the schedule folds into its salaries total while the worksheet also lists it on lines of its own — so it appears twice, and the surplus depends on which is right.

Refuse (Fund 401) is $632,500 in and out. The Capital Fund (300) is $8,631,105 on both sides — the $5,986,105 water-system hardening grant, $2,000,000 for affordable housing, a $465,000 CRA match to a community-development block grant, and $180,000 for the state transportation department's (FDOT) arts project — unchanged since the fifth workshop.

Worth watching. A resident raised water bills at the September 1 meeting, and a Council member floated a monthly credit. A forecast that adds $400,000 in water and sewer revenue, and a fund whose surplus just shrank, is where to ask what the bill will be.

What the posted record leaves open

What it is. The running list, updated for what the hearing packet answers.

Answered, for now. The General Fund balances. The elected raises are out. The HR/Risk line's two figures agree. The first-hearing date, which as of September 2 was on no portal, has been publicly announced.

Still open. The reserve balance the $384,972 draw comes from. The $0 contingency. The $112,087 drop in the Executive/Admin insurance line. The ordinance's $8,631,105. The CRA: the Town's budget has no CRA fund, its TIF line does not match the CRA's own figure, and the CRA's budget workshop is September 14, after this hearing. The second hearing: announced in the newspaper for September 21, not yet on the portal.

Worth watching. Between the first hearing and September 21 the Council can still change any line. After September 21 it takes a budget amendment by resolution — or, under Section Three of this ordinance, a transfer inside a department that needs no vote at all.