City plans at least one budget workshop, with possible second

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The Apopka City Council will hold at least one budget workshop with the possibility of a second, said Edward Bass, city administrator. The first workshop is scheduled for Thursday, July 5, at 1:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 120 E. Main Street.

The public will be able to speak at the workshop, although no votes will be taken by the City Council.

Bass said the second workshop, if needed, will be held on Wednesday, July 11, at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers.

He said that because he doesn’t have the final revenue sharing numbers from the state government, he hasn’t been able to nail down how much of it the city will have to spend in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Following the budget workshops, the City Council will set the tentative millage rate later in July and then will approve the budget with two public hearings in September. The new budget will take effect October 1.

The current city budget is $124.6 million and the property tax rate is 3.7876 mills, which equates to $378.76 for every $100,000 in taxable property value. Property taxes help pay for general City Hall functions that include community development, police, fire, recreation, and the mayor’s office. The current General Fund is almost $48 million. Most of the rest of the city budget is for utilities, which is paid for by user fees for water, sewer, and garbage pickup.

According to figures from the Orange County property appraiser’s office, the value of property in the city of Apopka has risen 10.1 percent, which equates to roughly $1 million more in property tax revenue if the City Council keeps the property tax rate at 3.7876 mills. In all, the taxable property value in Apopka is $3.25 billion, according to the property appraiser’s office.

Overall, property has increased by 9.3 percent in Orange County with Ocoee leading the way at 13.7 percent. The total taxable property value in all of Orange County is $130.52 billion.

Bass said that because he doesn’t have the final numbers from the state, he is not sure if taxes will have to be raised. “I’m hoping we don’t have to do that,” he said.

The biggest single item in this year’s city budget is the loan the city took out for the wastewater treatment plant that is under construction.

“We’re not anticipating any loans (in next year’s budget), but we’ll have an increase in debt payment because of that loan,” Bass said.

Normally, the city’s finance director would be handling all the budget preparation, but the city has been without a finance director since early this year when Pam Barclay retired. With the election in March and the changeover in administration, a new finance director has finally been hired, Bass said.

Jamie Roberson, currently the chief financial officer for the Osceola County property appraiser’s office, will join the city as Apopka’s finance director on June 25, although she has already been spending time in the evening learning the city’s systems, Bass said.

Roberson graduated from the University of South Florida, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the USF School of Accountancy. She is a Certified Government Finance Officer (CGFO) and has been a member of the local, state, and national chapters of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) since 2002.

The married mother of five, Roberson has been working in Osceola County government for nearly 16 years.