The Town Council recently held its September meetings, which included the tentative and final budget hearings, 1 week apart at Orchid's new Town Hall. During these sessions, the timing of which is guided by state law, the Town Council evaluated the budget performance of the current year, which will end on September 30, and planned for the upcoming year that will start on October 1.
An important step in the budgeting process is the adoption of the millage rate that will be used by the Indian River County Property Tax Collector to collect property taxes on behalf of the Town, as well as other local and regional taxing authorities.
The Town Council adopted a millage rate of 0.7 for Fiscal Year 2024 to 2025. This rate is 30% lower than the current fiscal year’s millage rate and 23% lower than the “rolled back rate” of 0.9093. The latter is the millage rate estimated to result in the same tax revenue next year as this year, taking into consideration the County’s recently revised property appraisals.
Orchid's gross estimated taxable property values increased just over 11%. A millage rate below the rolled-back rate is considered a tax decrease on the "macro" level of the entire Town, but how much your individual taxes will change depends on the Property Appraiser's adjustments to your property value too. This is the 4th year in a row that the Town Council has been able to lower the tax rate.
It is worth noting also that the Town’s tax rate is 39% below the County’s rate that is charged to unincorporated areas of the County (in which there is no municipality providing local services), but is not levied in the 5 incorporated municipalities, including the Town of Orchid. Property taxes will become payable to the County Tax Collector starting in November of this year.
Remember that early payers are eligible for a discount of up to 4%! Your Town property tax constitutes only a small portion of your overall property tax, the vast majority of which is levied by other local and regional taxing authorities, including Indian River County, the School District, St. John's River Water Management District, etc.
To calculate taxes based on a millage rate, divide your taxable property value by 1,000 and then multiply that figure by the millage rate.