St. Johns County residents will receive a notice in the mail showing that their property taxes will likely increase when the new fiscal year begins in October. The county wants the extra cash to fund road repairs, hire new firefighters and increase salaries for police officers.

The St. Johns County Commission voted 4-1 on Tuesday to approve a tentative budget for the next fiscal year that would lead to residents’ taxes going up. It’s still early in the budget-setting process, and that number could come down.

County Administrator Joy Andrews walked the Board of County Commissioners through the proposed $1.215 billion budget, showing what an increase in tax revenue could pay for. Top of that list were expansions to the county’s land acquisition program and much-needed road improvements.

“Our commitment to catching up our county’s infrastructure remains our first and most important highest priority,” Andrews said. “We have allocated significant funds for road repairs, bridge maintenance and new construction projects.”

Some of those projects include widening parts of County Road 210, building parks and demolishing the county’s old jail.

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To fund it, the county’s Finance Department went in expecting it would get $40 million in property taxes from residents. The county could do that by keeping its tax rate the same, but since property values have risen, tax bills will increase.

The proposed budget is a decrease from last year’s that totaled approximately $1.67 billion.

County Commissioner Krista Joseph was the lone dissenting vote on the proposed budget. She wants to see the County Commission have a serious discussion about lowering the tax rate to the rollback rate, meaning the tax rate that would give the county the same revenue from property taxes as it raised the previous year. 

“I think with the economy the way it is, there should be some way we can roll back the taxes on the community,” she said. “There’s many ways to do it without touching police and fire, which is the excuse I’m going to hear from the other commissioners. I definitely think now is the time.”

Joseph wants to see the county put off expenses like formulating the county’s long-term comprehensive plan for 2050 and upgrading some software for a year or two until prices of everyday goods go down.

But going to the rollback rate would strip $25 million out of the county’s proposed budget, and others on the County Commission said that just wasn’t realistic, especially not this early in the process. 

When residents receive their tax notices in the mail next month, they’ll see that the county is keeping its tax rate the same, meaning homeowners will pay more. That number can go down at the next budget meeting scheduled for Sept. 3, but it can’t go up. Commissioner Henry Dean said setting a higher number to begin with is the judicious option.

“I would love to go to rollback,” he said. “I really would. There are families out there … that are struggling with the costs of groceries, the cost of gas, you name it.”

Other sticking points on the budget included funding for the county’s land acqusition program — currently funded at $500,000, which Dean would like to see pumped up to $5 million — and increasing starting salaries for sheriff’s deputies from $55,000 to $58,000.

The next time the county will discuss alterations to next year’s budget will be Aug. 6. A formal budget workshop is scheduled for Sept. 3. The county is expected to adopt its 2025 budget Sept. 17.

The county’s Aug. 6 meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the county auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View. The Sept. 3 budget workshop is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. in the same location. 

All county meetings are streamed live on the county’s website and saved for future viewing.

For more information about the budget, go to the county’s website.

Editor’s note: This story was updated July 17, 2024, to include a note about the proposed 2025 budget’s comparison to the 2024 fiscal year budget.