By Mayor Bryan Nelson

Editor’s note: Mayor Bryan Nelson delivered the following remarks Thursday to the Florida House Select Committee on Property Taxes. 

Chairman and committee members, thank you for having me here today. Having served on that side of the dais from 2006 to 2014, I understand the pressures placed on you to help our seniors stay in their homes as well as those individuals looking to buy their first home. I think we can all agree that the American Dream of home ownership has become more difficult than ever before.  

I would like to first applaud your efforts two years ago to take bold steps to reduce the cost of property and auto insurance from continuing to skyrocket. Many Florida residents have seen deceases in their home and auto premiums. 

As to city budgets and property taxes, I want to give you some numbers about Apopka and a high-level look at our revenue and expenses.  

Our total 2025-26 general fund revenue came in at $108,895,244 with property taxes at $34,664,328; our sales tax at $15,297,146; our permit fees and special assessments at $18,127,209; our charges for services at $7,909,674; our intergovernmental at $16,681,201; transfers at $7,107,476; surplus at $7,401,847 and investment income of $3,720,078.  

With savings from vacant positions, we were able to reduce our millage by .25, which saves a homeowner with a $300,000 assessed value $75 per year. 

As for expenditure, our top five categories are police (30%), fire (29%), parks and rec (9%), IT (5%) and facilities maintenance (4%). Over the last seven years, Apopka has reduced our general fund debts by 96%, or $16.1 million.  

As of year-end, we will have $30.2 million in reserves, which is 28% of our general funds because of the policy put into place by then-Commissioner Doug Bankson, who now serves with you in the House of Representatives. 

As to salary and benefits, I have a couple of numbers for the committee. In 2015, a firefighter first class’s starting salary was $45,480; police officer was $45,480; wastewater plant operator “B” $36,121; and community development planner one $47,722.  

Fast forward to today and the firefighter’s salary is $54,063; police officer is $68,517; wastewater plant operator “B” is $50,515; and community development planner one is $57,807. Our employer costs for healthcare have gone from employee only coverage of $573.52 to the current policy of $1,018/month. Additionally, fire trucks and wastewater plants have tripled in price in the last seven years.   

Now to some thoughts about revenue and spending that continue to move in the wrong direction. Ten years ago, we collected $1,497,364 in the local option gasoline tax when cars were averaging 24 mpg and to mill and overlay (repave) a street cost $189,000/road mile. Fast forward to today, cars are averaging 27.1 mpg and the cost to repave is $324,000/road mile with $1,614,550 of revenue coming in from the gas tax.  

What is not factored in is the 2% of EV cars that pay no gas tax. Ten years ago, our gas tax was sufficient to keep our roads in decent shape but today we are transferring millions to the streets budget from our general revenue just to maintain our current roads.  

Although the city of Apopka is not looking to get DOGED, I am confident that the budget we just approved is lean and mean but meets the basic needs of our residents. To reduce property taxes without a substitute would make it difficult to balance our budget, and the city has few options to increase general fund revenue or reduce expenses.  

We understand that homeownership is important to all of us and we, the 412 cities, towns and villages of Florida, are willing to roll up our sleeves and help in any way we can.