The Indian River County Property Appraiser has issued the official figure with which the Town Council will be working to establish the millage rate and budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 over the course of two meetings held in September, as required by state law. That estimated gross taxable value is $623,042,922 and signifies an increase of 11.6% over the final gross taxable value of the current fiscal year ending September 30, 2024.
Estimated gross taxable value is the assessed value of property in Orchid from which has been subtracted any applicable exemptions. In calculating the Ad Valorem Tax revenue at different millage rates next year, the Town must use at least 95% of this estimated gross taxable value. The estimated gross taxable value will differ from the final gross taxable value, due to the value adjustment board process, which takes place after the budget is adopted. Furthermore, early payers of property taxes enjoy discounts of up to 4% of their property tax bill. The 5% “cushion” in the worksheets aims to account for these adjustments.
Due to the aforementioned increase in taxable property values, the rolled-back rate is 0.9093. This is the millage rate expected to provide the same Ad Valorem Tax revenue next year as this year. This means that the proposed millage rate of 1.0 adopted in April 2024 is 9.97% over the rolled back rate. At that same meeting, the Town Council already discussed lowering the millage rate in September, but opted to be conservative in April when much of the current year was yet to unfold, including a good portion of Hurricane Season. After all, the millage rate can only be easily maintained or decreased at each step, not easily increased.
Importantly, the Town Council works with the overall property value across the Town to determine the appropriate millage rate for the upcoming fiscal year. How much taxes change per individual property will not just be determined by the Town’s millage rate, but also the millage rates adopted by other applicable jurisdictions such as Indian River County, the School District, Hospital District, Mosquito Control District, etc., and also by adjustments made to the specific property’s value by the Indian River County Property Appraiser.
The tentative budget hearing will take place on September 16 starting at 5:05 p.m. and the final budget hearing will take place on September 23 starting at 5:05 p.m. Both meetings will be held at Town Hall located at 9301 Highway A1a, Suite 201, Vero Beach, FL 32963.
Below are links to documents by the Florida Department of Revenue that explain the finer details of the Truth-in-Millage process.