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Sunshine Line.

He is has an excused absence today to help his daughter get moved in.

And uh Commissioner Wussel is joining us uh via Zoom.

Before introducing our county administrator for opening remarks, I would like to remind everyone that this is a budget workshop, and as such, there will be no public comment today.

The public will be able to comment during our July and September budget public hearings.

Also, as this is a workshop, we will not be taking any votes today.

With that, I will turn it over to Ms.

Bonnie Wise, our county administrator for opening remarks.

Thank you.

And I will keep my comments brief today because Kevin does have an extensive presentation for you all.

We're going to um talk about the delivery of the fiscal year 2027 recommended budget.

That budget will be presented to you at your July 15th regular board meeting.

And you also may schedule other workshops if you'd like, and if you could um provide some topics if you would like anything in particular discussed.

Because those are the two where the board has the most discretion in your spending.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kevin to go through the overview.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Kevin Brickie Management Budget.

Uh, today we'll uh do an overview of the budget, look and look forward.

Uh our budget and our budget process continues to be uh monitored and reviewed by a number of different uh entities and agencies, including the uh government finance officers association of America, where we've received the uh Distinguished Budget Award since 1986, as well as the three credit rating agencies, uh, where we have had uh a triple-A rating from all three agencies uh for a number of years now.

We also have uh oversight and transparency uh uh requirements from various local, state, and federal agencies.

And as a matter of fact, the state legislature passed legislation to increase some of our oversight and transparency requirements that will be effective January 1 and mainly impacting our FY28 budget process among some of the things that this new legislation does.

It increases the amount of time that we'll need to have our final public hearings in September advertised to the public to give them more notice, increases the time from two to five days before that period, increases the amount of time we need to keep budgets posted on our website, which we already do.

Increases the number of schedules or information on the budget that we need to uh post, which we we do.

We just may need to highlight it some more.

One thing that is different that this legislation will require is that uh the county must hold a budget workshop at least 14 days prior to the final adoption of the budget to perform a budget reduction exercise to identify a potential 10% uh reduction in the upcoming budget.

That would uh begin again for FY28, and we would need to uh uh comply with that and uh determine how to move forward with that.

Uh we need to have our budget calendar on the web.

We do have a budget calendar, we'll be highlighting that more, and uh some other changes as I said as to the information, the budget information that would be on the website, as well as some changes that were in that uh statute regarding uh planning and impact fees.

Looking at our current budget, we continue to uh focus on a number of budget guiding principles.

Of course, uh the board must adopt a budget balanced budget, but we strive to adopt a structurally balanced budget where our ongoing expenditures are funded by ongoing revenues, not by uh one current not by one-time revenues.

We look to use restricted funds before general funds when possible.

Maintaining uh general fund reserves at the board policy of 20 to 25 percent, which also uh supports the uh triple A ratings from our credit rating agencies, prioritizing public safety, maintaining assets and current service levels, uh investing in our employees, and identifying deficiencies in the budget process.

In FY26, the total adopted budget is just over 12 billion dollars.

Uh 3.3 of that is in the capital program, uh, and 2.

Uh six of that uh is reserves.

Uh we see transfers, which are accounting uh mechanisms, our general funds uh 1.6 billion dollars.

Our total operating is about 4.1 billion dollars or 34 percent of the budget.

And this slide looks at that operating, that 4.14 billion dollars.

Uh in this, one can see that uh sheriff enterprise funds, which is uh our water and solid waste operations, our health care services, uh, fire rescue, uh, that's 51% of the total 4.1 billion dollar operating fund.

Uh sheriff and fire rescue, so broadly speaking, uh public safety is 24% for public safety.

Turning to those areas where Bonnie mentioned where the board has the most discretion, our two general funds, our countywide general fund and our unincorporated area general fund.

I'll remind you that our countywide general fund funds services that are provided by you to all uh citizens and businesses in the county, whether they're in the unincorporated area or within the city.

Uh the op the operating millage for FY26 is 5.4608 mills, which is about $1,638 on an assessed home value of $350,000.

Human services are included, economic development, medical examiner, pet resources.

Those services are provided across the county, including within the cities.

And when one looks at the countywide general fund at 1.6 billion dollars, reserves are about 324 million dollars.

One looks at the operating functions, about 56% of the countywide general fund is to constitutional officers and outside agencies.

Turning to the unincorporated area general fund, this is where you fund services in the unincorporated area only, similar services to what a city would provide within its own borders to its own residents.

The operating millage in the unincorporated area is 4.6163 mills, which is about 1385, 1,385 on a home assessed at 350,000.

That millage continues to be less than the three cities, which ranges from 5.7 to 6.45 mills.

The types of services, again, these are the types of services a city provides on its own boundaries, fire rescue services, sheriff, which means primarily patrol law enforcement type of operations, public works, parks and recreation.