The hearing will begin at 5:01 p.m. in the Board of County Commissioners Chambers at the Orange County Administration Center.<\/a> Residents are invited to attend and speak during public comment.<\/p>\nA second public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24 at 5:01 p.m.<\/p>\n
Orange County has kept its countywide operating tax rate at 4.4347 mills since 2008. According to the county, that is the 11th-lowest countywide operating tax rate in Florida.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget includes more than $1.1 billion for the Sheriff\u2019s Office, Fire Rescue and Corrections. The county said public safety uses about 53% of its property tax revenue.<\/p>\n
The proposed increases would help pay for salaries and equipment, create new positions and support safe jail operations.<\/p>\n
The budget also dedicates $19.5 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Orange County has set a goal of creating or preserving 10,000 housing units by the end of 2028.<\/p>\n
More than $56 million is proposed for homelessness crisis intervention and behavioral health services. The budget also includes a new 150-bed homeless service center in East Orange County.<\/p>\n
For transportation, the county is proposing $115.5 million for LYNX and $15 million for SunRail.<\/p>\n
Orange County said construction and maintenance costs have risen significantly since 2019, reducing the purchasing power of each transportation dollar by about 42%. The county budgets more than $200 million annually for roadways. In 2024, commissioners also allocated $100 million over five years to the Accelerated Transportation Safety Program.<\/p>\n
The county is also preparing for the possible effect of Amendment 3, a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot.<\/p>\n
Orange County estimates the amendment could reduce its property tax revenue by $165 million in 2027 and $275 million in 2028. If it passes, the county said commissioners could face decisions about spending, service levels and other legally available sources of revenue.<\/p>\n
Orange TV will broadcast the hearing live. Residents can watch on Spectrum Channel 488.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Orange County commissioners will hold the first of two public hearings Thursday on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,3949,2287,115,1335,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":["post-395795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bryanna-howard","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}