Proposed Millage Rate Adopted

On May 2, the Town kicked off with a first step in the annual budget process which will be concluded in September in advance of the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. This first step was for the Town Council to hold the annual budget workshop. The purpose of the workshop is to adopt a proposed millage rate - the first of three millage rates that will be adopted during the process. Indeed, the proposed rate will be evaluated again in September at the tentative budget hearing, when a tentative millage rate is adopted, which in turn is considered at the final budget hearing about a week later, when the final millage rate is adopted.

The budget workshop is when the dates for those two September hearings are set also, which are not permitted to take place on the same days as those selected for the School District’s and Indian River County’s budget hearings. Those dates have been selected to be the consecutive Mondays of September 11 and 18 with both millage and budget discussions and hearings starting at 5:05 p.m. pursuant to Florida Law. The budget hearings, just like all other Town meetings, are open to the public and participation from the community is encouraged. 

The proposed millage rate adopted at this year's workshop is 1.3 mills. This is higher than the current year's millage rate (1.1) and was selected at this stage for a combination of reasons. Presently, the Town anticipates ending the year with a net loss due to the major expenditure of a dune repair project following damaging coastal impacts by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. Additionally, it is strategically advantageous to take a conservative approach at this point in the budget process, because in September the millage rate can easily be decreased, but is much more difficult to increase. Erring on the side of caution provides the Town Council with flexibility once much more information is available. 

Due to the early timing of Orchid’s budget workshop to accommodate the seasonal nature of the Town, there are no updated assessed property values from the Indian River County Property Appraiser’s Office available yet, nor has the Town received the estimated state revenue figures from the Florida Department of Revenue yet. The current year also has many months remaining, most of which are in hurricane season. More specific revenue and expense figures will be available to the Town Council by the September budget meetings.