The Apopka City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to lower the fiscal year 2026 millage rate from 4.6876 to 4.4376.

The decrease leaves the millage rate 0.52% above the rollback rate of 4.4146—which is the rate that would have generated the same amount of revenue as last year. 

At the same final budget hearing, the council also voted 4-0 to finalize the FY26 budget of $235.7 million, a 16.85% increase of almost $34 million over last year’s budget.  

The approved millage rate would yield almost $34,664,328 in property tax revenues for FY26.  

A mill is the tax rate for each $1,000 of taxable property value. For a property assessed at $300,000 in value, the new tax bill would be $1,331.28. If the city had approved the rollback rate instead, the tax bill on a $300,000 property would have been about $7 less. 

Commissioner Nick Nesta recused himself from the budget vote, explaining that recusing himself was to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest.  

The City Council voted on finalizing the water, wastewater and reclaimed water rate increases by 15.5% at its regular scheduled meeting the same night. The Council voted to increase the sanitation rates by 20% at the regular Sept. 3 meeting. The sanitation increase will go into effect Oct. 1.  

Before voting on the overall budget, Commissioner Nadia Anderson said she had spoken with Raftelis, the consulting company that conducted the utility rates and impact fee study for the city. Raftelis’ suggested rate increases have received much public backlash.  

Anderson said from that conversation, she had “a change of heart” and understood “that this increase is needed, to ensure that we have what we needed.”  

The new fiscal year will start Oct. 1 of this year and end Sept. 30 next year. 

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story erroneously said the millage rate increased. It has been corrected to note the millage rate decreased, although the tax burden is increasing slightly due to higher property values. We regret the error.