Alachua County Commission passes FY2027 budget on first reading, discusses reducing jail population

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the September 8 meeting, the Alachua County Commission established their property tax rates and assessments for FY2027 and adopted a tentative budget; they also discussed reducing the jail population during Member Comment.

Action items

After the board moved forward with conveying 13.11 acres to the Hutchinson Foundation to build a workforce/market-rate housing development in east Gainesville (click here for our article on the earlier part of the meeting), they established a Municipal Service Benefit Unit taxing district for the Town of Tioga Phase 22, accepted the Pine Hill Forest Special Area Study, and authorized staff to begin developing the Special Area Plan for Pine Hill Forest.

90-day extension for animal shelter property negotiations

During Manager Comment, County Manager Michele Lieberman asked the board to approve a 90-day extension of the negotiation period for a lease agreement with the University of Florida for property to build an animal shelter, and the board approved that unanimously.

Reducing jail population

Commissioner Anna Prizzia said she wanted to give an update on the jail: “We have 971 people in our jail, as of today. Apparently, 360 of them have been there… between 60 days and a year, 82 of them over a year, with 26 of those having it be their first felony. We have 67 misdemeanors that are their first misdemeanor, mostly, and 16 of them have been in over 60 days. I’m just going to bring this small report to y’all from time to time from now on, just so we can keep track of what’s going on, because I feel like our Sheriff is working really hard to try to think of ways to reduce the jail population, and I really hope that our court system is also thinking about ways that we can reduce our jail population.”

Prizzia continued, “We have 971 people in our jail today, and that’s a lot of people. Our jail only holds, I think, 1,200 at its very maximum, so we’re bumping up close to that maximum, and every time we do that, we put stress on the system… I just wanted to bring that to you and ask our State Attorney and our Public Defender and our courts to all work with us on the joint goal, I think, of reducing our jail population in Alachua County.”

In response to a question from Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler about how many inmates are in jail because they could not afford to post bail, Prizzia said she didn’t know, but “it would be great to know if someone’s in there solely for financial reasons. It would be great to know so we could think about… the ways in which we could shift that.”

FY2027 fire, solid waste, and stormwater assessment fees

During the evening session, the board took up several items related to the FY2027 budget.

The Fire Assessment Fees are unchanged: $132.47 per parcel for Tier 1 and $7.28 per equivalent benefit unit for Tier 2. This fee is assessed for Alachua County residents who don’t live in a municipality, along with residents of the cities of Alachua, Archer, Hawthorne, Micanopy, and Waldo. The FY 2026-27 expected revenue is $24,420,271. A motion to adopt the fees passed unanimously.

Solid waste assessments will also remain the same in FY2027, and stormwater assessments will be flat at $60 per equivalent residential unit. Both passed unanimously.

Property tax and MSTU rates

Lieberman presented the proposed property tax rate of 7.2107 mills, which is the rolled-back rate; the proposed rate is 0.3893 mills lower than last year’s property tax rate of 7.6000 mills. The property tax rate for the Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MSTU) for Law Enforcement is 3.5678 mills, 5.47% higher than the rolled-back rate of 3.3829 mills and the same as last year’s rate.

The rolled-back millage rate is defined as the millage rate which, exclusive of new construction, additions to structures, deletions, and property added due to geographic boundary changes, will provide the same ad valorem tax revenue for each taxing authority as was levied during the prior year.

Lieberman said the property tax revenue for FY2027 will be $3,421,068 greater than FY2026’s property tax revenue, and “the increase in property tax revenue is necessary to fund the appropriations to operate the general County and MSTU law enforcement taxing units.”

FY2027 budget

Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby presented the budget; the All Funds budget for FY2027 is $974,151,842, $27.2 million higher than the FY2026 adopted All Funds budget of $946,936,554; the proposed General Fund budget is $327,354,558, and the MSTU Law Enforcement budget is $49,097,883.

Crosby said Alachua County is 52nd out of 67 Florida counties in aggregate millage (9.0492 mills) and 41st in General Fund millage. He said the property tax per capita is $761, compared to a state average of $991. Crosby said Alachua County has the 32nd lowest per-capita property tax and has reduced the property tax rate 10 years in a row; in FY2017, the property tax rate was 8.9290 mills, 1.7183 mills higher than the FY2027 rate. 

Motions to adopt the proposed general County budget and MSTU budget and establish the general County property tax rate and MSTU property tax rate all passed unanimously.

The second and final public hearing on the budget will be held on Tuesday, September 22, at 5:01 p.m.