Gainesville City Commission discusses housing, adopts annual assessments, approves tentative property tax rates and budget

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the September 10 General Policy Committee and special budget meetings, the Gainesville City Commission heard a housing update; approved annual fire, solid waste, and stormwater assessment fees; and approved a tentative budget and property tax rates on first reading.

Housing

At the end of a housing update during the General Policy Committee meeting (click here for the housing presentation), Interim City Manager Andrew Persons said that members of the local legislative delegation had gone on a tour of the City’s housing projects, and State Senator Stan McClain, “who is a housing person,… was very enthusiastic. He said several times on the tour, ‘You guys are doing great work,’… which was really nice to hear.” State Representative Chad Johnson also attended the housing tour, which was focused on the appropriations the City is seeking from the legislature. 

Persons went on to say that it was an opportunity for the City to “highlight the fact that the vast majority of what we do, day-to-day, as a City, are bread-and-butter things that we provide as a service organization… It’s usually the smaller things that tend to make better headlines, but really the bulk of what we do as a City is to provide service to residents… So we tried to emphasize that during the tour, and I think [the legislators] hopefully walked away with a better impression of those things.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she would like for the Commission to be involved in future delegation visits, but City Attorney Daniel Nee said he wasn’t “aware of a way in which a deliberative body, such as the City Commission, can go on the road with a tour like that” because of Sunshine Laws.

Mayor Harvey Ward: “I’m interested in how we can direct some of our housing money to directly benefit workers at the City of Gainesville, for workforce housing for City of Gainesville workers. I would like to see more of our workers who have told me that they can’t afford to live inside the city limits be able to live in the city limits.”

Mayor Harvey Ward said he is “interested in — not in the near term,… but looking out in the medium and long term, I’m interested in how we can direct some of our housing money to directly benefit workers at the City of Gainesville, for workforce housing for City of Gainesville workers. I would like to see more of our workers who have told me that they can’t afford to live inside the city limits be able to live in the city limits. That is something that I have always been interested in, and I want us to start weaving that into the conversation.”

Mayor Ward: “When I go to conferences, and when the rest of you go to conferences to talk about housing, and somebody puts a slide up with a list of all the things that cities ought to be doing to improve the supply and hopefully the affordability of housing,… I look down the list of recommendations. We’re doing all those things here in Gainesville.”

Ward added that when he goes to conferences “and somebody puts a slide up with a list of all the things that cities ought to be doing to improve the supply and… affordability of housing,… I look down the list of recommendations. We’re doing all those things here in Gainesville. We are not missing big pieces of that… It will take a long time for it to feel more affordable, because this is a place where people want to live. That means the demand is high, which is going to drive up the price when supply is relatively low… It’s important that the community hear that and know that we are doing the work.” He said the County is also doing “some really cool work recently,… and I hope that we can nudge the School Board in that direction, as well.”

UF President Bell and staff met individually with Mayor and Commissioners

Ward also mentioned that “[UF] President [Stuart] Bell and some of his staff came to visit City Hall this week and met with each of the Commissioners and me, individually. They took a huge chunk of their day to come talk with us, and to my knowledge, that is historically unrivaled… Thank you to President Bell and his staff for coming down here and doing that.”

Budget meeting

During the special budget meeting in the evening, Commissioners approved a tentative property tax rate of 6.7297 mills, the same as last year and 5.42% higher than the rolled-back rate of 6.3839 mills. The rolled-back rate is the rate that would generate the same revenue as last year, excluding new construction.

The City’s proposed All Funds budget is $500,774,431, which is $33.9 million or 7.3% higher than the FY2026 adopted All Funds budget.

The FY2027 proposed General Fund budget is $174,136,893, which is $12.1 million or 7.5% higher than the FY2026 adopted General Fund budget. Property tax revenue is projected to be $81,566,380. 

Click here to see the full budget presentation.

Fire Assessment

Commissioners previously voted to set the Fire Assessment Fee at a level that would recoup 85% of the assessable fire expenses, an increase of $8.1 million over last year, when the level was set to recoup 53% of assessable expenses. The increased fee was adopted, 5-2, with Commissioners Ed Book and Desmon Duncan-Walker in dissent.

Solid Waste Assessment

The Solid Waste Assessment, which will appear on property tax bills as an annual fee instead of being billed monthly on GRU bills, was unanimously adopted. 

Stormwater Assessment

The Stormwater Assessment, which will also appear on property tax bills instead of monthly GRU bills, was adopted 6-1, with Duncan-Walker in dissent.

Property tax rate

The tentative property tax rate of 6.7297 mills was approved unanimously on first reading.

General Government budget

The tentative General Government budget for Fiscal Year 2027 (see above for the amounts) was approved 6-1 on first reading, with Commissioner Bryan Eastman in dissent.

The second and final public hearing for property tax rates and the budget will be at 5 p.m. on September 17.