Gainesville finishes budget season, sets final millage for 2025
The Gainesville City Commission finalized its new millage rate and budget for the fiscal year starting Tuesday and running through Sept. 30, 2025.
The second and final votes for the items were supposed to take place last Thursday, but Hurricane Helene's arrival delayed the meeting.
The commission decided to keep the millage rate flat at 6.4297 mills. This millage rate will generate approximately $5.2 million more than the current property taxes because of the increase in property values. Because of this, the state of Florida still considers the rate a tax increase at 6.3% above the rolled-back rate—the millage at which the city would collect the same revenue as the current year.
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Gainesville's overall general fund budget, however, will decrease from $156.4 million in fiscal year 2024 to $155.3 million in fiscal year 2025. The decrease comes because of other revenue losses that the property tax increase doesn't fully offset. Primarily, the city of Gainesville will receive $6.8 million less from Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) in its annual transfer, known as the general services contribution.
Monday's meeting lasted 15 minutes but culminated months of budget workshops and meetings. The budget season started with uncertainty concerning how much money the GRU Authority would send in its general services contribution.
City Manager Cynthia Curry had departments prepare for two different scenarios: no GRU transfer and receiving the same transfer amount as the current fiscal year. The authority sent its budget to the city by the state mandated deadline , showing a $8.5 million transfer compared to the current $15.3 million transfer.
