At the July 28 Regular Meeting of the City Commission, the city presented its 2025-2026 fiscal year millage rate. For property tax rates, the millage is $1 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
In June, the county property appraiser notified the city that the gross taxable value of property in Plant City for 2025 is $5,197,347,883. This represents an increase of 10.3 percent in city property values above 2024. New construction accounted for $276,863,083 of this amount, and will generate $1,503,343 in ad valorem tax revenue for the city.
Based on the numbers, the city can select different tax rates up to a maximum of 5.8769 mils. The city proposal is to keep the millage the same as last year at 5.7157, which the city commission can approve with a two-thirds majority vote. The total proposed city budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 is $148,534,399. The fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.
Why didn’t the city edge the millage up a bit to bring in more revenue? “Because we don’t need to for the services we are providing,” City Manager Bill McDaniel said. “I don’t believe, nor do I think, the commission believes that we should be taxing, or asking more from the community, than what’s necessary to run the operation and provide the services they want at the level that they expect. Based on the totality of the scenario here in Plant City, there is no need to increase that rate, and it was never even a consideration. New growth in the city allows us to keep pace with the increasing service demands.”
One millage of the 5.7157 is dedicated to street improvements, resurfacing, and maintenance, which equals $4,937,481. Of this amount, $332,667 will be applied to streets within the area of the Community Resource Agency (CRA).
At the city commission meeting, Rosa Lee Jones stood to say Ball St., between Collins St. and Alexander St., needs to be repaved. “Her street will be repaved,” McDaniel said. “Portions of it are already slated, and it will all be repaved. We are at 85 percent of the total lane miles that the city is responsible for taking care of that have been repaved in the last seven years. That’s an unprecedented accomplishment. I would challenge you to find any other municipalities that can keep up with that. I think that, not only are we maintaining the millage rate, but we also have a program built into that rate that is allowing us to maintain our roadway infrastructure at a very high level. We basically have the entire city on a 15-year rotation to make sure that the asphalt is kept in good shape. That is something the citizens wanted. They made that clear. We added that one mil to take care of the roads.”
The public hearing for the proposed millage rate and tentative budget will be held on September 8 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall.