- December 4, 2025
A last-minute proposal to cut Ormond Beach's property tax rate caused a flurry of questions and degrees of confusion on the dais as some officials — and citizens — expressed vexation at the switch.
At the city's second budget hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 17, City Commissioner Travis Sargent put forth a proposal to adopt a millage rate that would've been 0.21% below the current rate. To get here, the commission would've needed to:
Projects already included in the CIP budget, such as the rebuilding of Riviera Park fishing dock and the installation of solar LED parking lot lights at Ormond Beach Sports Complex and Nova Community Center, would be funded using just over $1 million from the city's reserves.
"I don't think the ship has sailed," Sargent said. "I think we have options. It takes a lot to go through this and to come up with these, because I don't want to cut any services. This is a plan that will provide the residents with the services they expect and not have to pay additional taxes."
After about an hour of discussion and questions to city staff, Sargent's proposal was significantly altered, leading to a unanimous vote to approve a millage rate of 4.3832 mills, or $4.3832 per $1,000 in taxable property value. This rate is 5.3% higher than last year's rate, down from the initially proposed 10% tax rate increase tentatively set in July.
Here is how we got there.
Commissioners were not keen on eliminating the two Parks and Rec positions, which are for park maintenance.
At Wednesday's budget hearing Commissioner Kristin Deaton asked staff if these were the positions that Leisure Services Director Robert Carolin told them were needed during the commission's workshop on July 22. Finance Director Kelly McGuire said they were.
"That's where I'm struggling," Deaton said. 'We sat here and promised people two weeks ago that we weren't going to cut from Parks and Rec. We promised them."
Commissioners Lori Tolland and Harold Briley were on the same page. All three said they didn't want to cut from Parks and Rec, including the dedicated millage.
"Our residents expect to use safe parks," Briley said. "They expect for the playground equipment to be safe. They expect the restrooms to be clean, the restrooms be safe — all these types of things."
Tolland, who before being elected in 2022, served on the city's Leisure Services advisory board, said projects in the department's long-range plan tended to be pushed back year after year. That's why the commission in 2023 added the dedicated millage to Leisure Services and the Facilities R&R fund, she said.
"It's always parks and recreation that gets kicked down the road," Tolland said. "Is it essential? It's not like water, but it is your quality of life. You know? It's what makes Ormond Beach so special."
Sargent said he was willing to add the Parks and Rec positions back in.
"I don't really want to take them," he said. "I'm just trying to get us flat. We're still providing the services our residents want."
The commission could add millage back in next year after they "self-DOGE," he added.
Once a dedicated millage is removed from the tax rate, it doesn't come back the following budget year, unless officials tell staff to add it back in.
"They're not there for ongoing projects year after year after year," McGuire said.
If the commission had adopted a flat rate, it would see some additional property tax revenue due to growth, she explained. But that growth in taxable value has begun to dip.
"The growth in taxable values is less than it's been in prior years and I would expect that to continue to come down," McGuire said. "... Part of the reason that we have this request for a tax increase this year is because the remaining general fund revenues were all flat. I've been here 20 years — that has never happened."
"So we'll be in the same position next year?" Deaton asked.
McGuire said no. If the commission wants to go flat next year, they will make that happen. They just need to know sooner than three weeks before the budget hearing.
However, going to a flat rate next year while adding back millage the commission removed this year may not be possible.
Briley said the city can start a self-DOGE process following the budget hearings to prepare for next fiscal year.
"It will give these folks some transparency that at least we did go through the process," Briley said. "Identify if there's any places that could be cut and at least have that conversation there that extra millage might be needed."
To get to the rate of 4.3832 mills, the commission opted to keep everything Sargent proposed to cut except for the Public Works and Risk Management position, whose duties are being covered by Ormond's two assistant city managers, and livestreaming video for commission meetings, which was expected to cost $120,000 a year.
Several residents spoke both for and against a tax rate increase at the beginning of the meeting, prior to Sargent's proposal. The majority of people left the chamber after the mayor called for a recess to allow city staff to recalculate the budget following the directed cuts.
After the commission officially voted on its new millage rate and budget — down $380,000 to $142 million — a couple residents stayed to speak.
One was Eric Palacios, who serves as the chairman of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce. He told the commission he had come to the meeting to express appreciation for the city's support on behalf of the chamber. Upon seeing what transpired on the dais during the budget hearing, he changed his mind, calling Sargent's last-minute budget proposal "a disgrace and an embarrassment to the city of Ormond Beach."
"After the public outcry, you all sat up here and talked about how Parks and Rec was important, how police and fire were important and it was a unanimous decision to approve the millage as proposed last time," Palacios said. "Yet, tonight we come where it should have been a procedural vote to approve what has already been approved, you decide to say, 'Well, I welcome DOGE. We need to think about what we do.' The time for that was months ago."
At the end of the day, Palacios said, the commission approved a smaller tax increase than proposed earlier this month. It's still an increase.
Resident Mary Greenlees, whose partner John Olivari serves on the Budget Advisory Board, asked the commission what happened in the two weeks between budget hearings.
"When you guys make a decision, why wouldn't you stick with it?" she asked, bringing up the recent employee broker vote too. "... It sounds like some politics got in the way and we really need to change that as Ormond Beach residents."
