The Broward County Commission is scheduled to end its annual summer recess Thursday morning to take up a $2 billion budget for the new fiscal year that resists pressure to increase funding for police, fire rescue and public transportation.
The budget does not address the state’s recent efforts to identify allegedly wasteful spending at the county level — an accusation from the governor’s office that spurred the state’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency to conduct what it called an audit of Broward’s “woke” spending practices. That’s in addition to DOGE scrutinizing many other local governments’ spending across the state.
That analysis, which is ongoing, was never intended to have an impact on this year’s budget, which was already subjected to a year of discussion and negotiation before the state’s audit team descended on Broward County over the summer. Instead, as Gov. Ron DeSantis noted in February, it was to point out “bloated” spending in local governments so that the state can reduce spending — and property taxes — in the years to come.
The DOGE audit will likely find areas of disagreement between the state and county governments, said Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller, a Democrat and former state senator who has criticized the DOGE audit as politically motivated. “But they’re not going to find egregious examples of overspending.”
Instead, he predicted, debate over the 2025-26 budget will focus on more predictable issues, including the county’s refusal to meet Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony’s demand for a 9% increase in funding and a need for Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties to make up for a $27 million annual funding cut to Tri-Rail, the public transportation system that serves 4.4 million passengers a year.
“We don’t have the money,” said Geller, who agreed that public safety and transportation were important priorities for the county government.
The Sheriff’s Office already accounts for more than half the county’s budget. Tony asked for an increase of more than 9%, but county officials bristled at the amount and didn’t budge from the 3.1% increase it promised earlier this year.
According to Geller, the county is further hampered by the fact that the state recently made the Tax Collector’s office an elected position, effectively creating a new government department at the county level without a corresponding fund to pay for it. That left each county in the state footing the bill for its tax collector, a cost to Broward of $80 million a year.
The county will not be changing its tax rate, but most homeowners will still see a higher property tax bill because the rate is applied to the current value of the property. Countwide, property values rose 7.52%, according to the Property Appraiser’s Office. For those with a homeowner’s exemption, the same tax rate from 2024 will apply to an additional value of 2.9%.
In short, if the value of your home went up, so will your taxes, even though the rate didn’t change. The homestead exemption protects homeowners from excessive rate increases, so the tax rate cannot apply to any value increase above 2.9%.
The Property Appraiser’s office sends tax estimates to homeowners every year.
The commission’s budget needs two votes to pass. The first is scheduled for Thursday. Once it passes, the commission will have time to make changes and adjustments before passing a final budget later this month.
The budget takes effect Oct. 1.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.