WEBVTT
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Welcome to this edition of County Conversations,
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where we have a program with St. John's County
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to help educate the community and better inform
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them about the services and programs of St. John's
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County. On this episode of County Conversations,
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we're Very happy to have with us, Wade Schroeder.
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He's our director of management and budget. Welcome
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to the show, Wade. Thank you. We're here to kind
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of break down the budget for the county, help
00:00:30.910 --> 00:00:33.850
explain and educate the community and our viewers
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and listeners about the budget, how it's made
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up, and then also dive into to the proposed amendment,
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property tax amendment three. Let's jump into
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budgeting 101. Take us through the process because
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it's not an overnight. process that you go through,
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your team goes through in management and budget.
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It's really a lengthy process. Walk us through
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it. Yeah, so it really is, you know, it's pretty
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much the entire year. A lot of pieces that the
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public sees, there's work done behind the scenes
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on it. So we open it up to departments to start
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making their budget requests about March. A couple
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months of them inputting their budget requests,
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reviewing it. and collating it, we then have,
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in May, we have some, the administrator has budget
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hearings open to the public, viewable online,
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of each department's requested budgets. That's
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really the administration's first chance to see
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and hear what departments are asking for, what
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their justifications are. And then from March,
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and I like to say that, you know, building the
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budgets, like putting a puzzle together but you
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don't necessarily know what the final picture
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is until the very end because the departments
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put in their budget requests and then after that
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we get an idea of what our property taxes may
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be for the upcoming year so we get an estimate
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of property taxes from the property appraiser.
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that can tell us whether we have enough funding,
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or we may have enough funding at our current
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tax rate, or we need to increase or potentially
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decrease to be able to fund that budget. And
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I guess using your analogy of the puzzle and
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puzzle pieces, I guess when you get that information
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from the property appraiser, it gives you that...
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cover the box, the box cover the puzzle, and
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you can see where you have to put the pieces
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together. I would say it gets most of it because
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even in June we get that estimate as well. One
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of our largest expenses out of our general fund,
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our property tax funded area, we also get in
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June is our constitutional officer's budget.
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So their budgets are completely separate. Their
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requests are directly to the Board of County
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Commissioners. It doesn't necessarily go through
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that administrative budget hearing process. Once
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we have all of that information in, the property
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taxes, the requested budget, we kind of take
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it all in, digest it, and then in July, we present
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to the board a recommended budget. That's the
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county administration's recommended budget. It's
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taking everything that the department's requested,
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identifying what we can fund, what we may not
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be able to fund, and maybe even moving stuff
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around from one fund to another to be able to
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make sure we have that full picture of the budget.
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Then from July, the adoption process of the budget
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is a two -part public hearing in September. That's
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when we bring in, and this is kind of a foreign
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concept to most people, is the carry forward.
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So we have a recommended budget, and from there
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we add on top of it anything, any projects, any
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grants that may have been funded in the current
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year, not yet complete, added on to the budget,
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not new funding, but appears to be additional
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increases to the budget, but not necessarily
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increases. So it's a two -part process for approval.
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We just finished the, on September 15th, the
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board approved the final adopted budget for fiscal
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year 2027. That budget starts October 1st. And
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then from there, really, we're kind of monitoring
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it, any changes that are needed, any agenda items
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or board decisions that may change the budget,
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as well as, you know, obviously, the impact of
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Amendment 3, if that passes as well. This six
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- to nine -month process you just walked us through,
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Wade, to make up, to create the budget and get
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the budget approved, it's made up of various
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funds. Most of the public may not realize anything
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is just one budget one checking account if you
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will or one savings account if you will it's
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actually made up of 89 individual funds walk
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us through what some of those funds are and how
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they're broken up and used sure so yes 89 individual
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funds when most people think of the budget they
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just think of the total budget the 1 .9 billion
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dollar budget 89 individual budgets that make
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up that one number There's there's various sources
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and uses that can make up a different fund. That's
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kind of our way of separating things Utility
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services you wouldn't want necessarily community
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wouldn't want their Utility builder water and
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sewer to build to go to parks and recs So we
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have a separate fund that controls these certain
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revenues are going to these certain purposes.
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So various types of funds there impact fees tourist
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development taxes various debt service, plenty
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of special revenue funds. You talked about utilities.
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That's a special fund or special account that's
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an enterprise fund. Talk about what some of the
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enterprise funds we have. So our two enterprise
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funds are both utilities and solid waste. The
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enterprise fund and that they have to operate
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kind of individual as their own business in nature.
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They don't Neither of them rely on property taxes.
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They have their own revenues, either charges
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for water or sewer bill. For solid waste, we
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have special assessments that are added on to
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the property tax as an assessment, not property
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tax -derived, a non -ad valorem assessment. And
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each of those revenues go to support those operations.
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So you're billing your budget six to nine months.
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It's broken up into various funds, 89 different
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funding components of the budget. Talk about
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the revenue that's needed to support the budget,
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the different revenue sources, some of the primary
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sources of funding and money that the county
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gets to help fund the budget. So, yes, again,
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$1 .9 billion budget. It's not all property taxes.
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About $426 million for the fiscal year 27 budget
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is made of property taxes, but there's various
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other funding sources. Again, I mentioned Utility
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charges for services, that's primarily utility
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services. Special assessments we have. It could
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be impact fees as well as the solid waste. We
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do have other taxes, tourist development tax
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I mentioned. Some fuel taxes as well. Those are
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really the primary revenues that make up part
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of the budget. But again, not all property taxes,
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certainly other. other avenues for revenue sources.
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Looking at some of the materials you've presented
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to the public in these budget hearings and other
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presentations, there's also things such as interest
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earnings and and fines and forfeitures. I mean
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there's just a variety of sources of funding
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that help fuel the budget. Right, so yeah, interest
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earnings that can fluctuate with the economy,
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with the market, as well as it can fluctuate
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with depending on how much funds we have available
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on hand. If we're If we're in a position where
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we're spending down any fund balance, then our
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interest earnings would go down as a result.
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So as you're building this budget, you get the
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information from the property tax appraiser,
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other sources of information. You get the different
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budgets from the constitutional officers. The
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puzzle, as you describe it, starts to come together.
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Hopefully no puzzle pieces have fallen onto the
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floor and get lost in the carpet. And you're
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building your budget. You start to see the picture.
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You've got your different sources. Give us kind
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of a snapshot of different service areas, because
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most people may think, okay, you've got your
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budget, you've got your money, it just goes into
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one big pot, and everybody kind of withdraws
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their money from that checking account, if you
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will, for the departments. But you have specific
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service areas that you have to budget for. Right,
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right. So yes, each department kind of has their
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own assigned service area, I guess, assigned
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to them. Utility services is one of the big ones,
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solid waste as well. They're both considered
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a physical environment service area. Public safety
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service area, that's going to be your EMS, your
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fire services, your emergency management, as
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well as your medical examiner, as well as any
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certain other funds out there. We have impact
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fees for fire EMS. That's going to be part of
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that public service, public safety component
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as well. Transportation. That's kind of self
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-explanatory. We have property tax allocated
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to transportation, but as well there are some
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other revenues as well. Impact fees go toward
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transportation. We have a sidewalk trust fund
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that developers have to pay into from time to
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time if they don't meet certain requirements
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and those dollars are then going into that transportation
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service area. Well, Wade, thank you so much for
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budgeting 101. You really helped put the pieces
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together to build the puzzle. And one thing to
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note that all of this is transparent. You put
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your budget online, it's available on the website.
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You mentioned the budgeting sessions through
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the county administrator. Those videos are on
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the budgeting website. And it's a very transparent
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process that your team presents. So Wade Schroeder,
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Director of Management and Budget for St. John's
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County, thank you so much for joining us on this
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episode of County Conversations. Thank you. For
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this episode of County Conversations, thank you
00:10:09.129 --> 00:10:10.950
so much for joining us. We'll look forward to
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seeing you again real soon. You've been listening
00:10:13.549 --> 00:10:16.110
to County Conversations with Director of Public
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Affairs for St. John's County Wayne Larson. If
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you'd like to keep the dialogue going, like,
00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:23.669
share, and leave a review on our social media.
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For news, events, and resources, make sure you
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visit our county website, sjcfl .us. That is
00:10:31.970 --> 00:10:34.529
sjcfl .us.
00:00:08.060 --> 00:00:10.919
Welcome to this edition of County Conversations,
00:00:11.060 --> 00:00:13.179
where we have a program with St. John's County
00:00:13.179 --> 00:00:15.759
to help educate the community and better inform
00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.179
them about the services and programs of St. John's
00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:21.300
County. On this episode of County Conversations,
00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:23.690
we're Very happy to have with us, Wade Schroeder.
00:00:23.829 --> 00:00:26.210
He's our director of management and budget. Welcome
00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:28.390
to the show, Wade. Thank you. We're here to kind
00:00:28.390 --> 00:00:30.910
of break down the budget for the county, help
00:00:30.910 --> 00:00:33.850
explain and educate the community and our viewers
00:00:33.850 --> 00:00:36.189
and listeners about the budget, how it's made
00:00:36.189 --> 00:00:40.090
up, and then also dive into to the proposed amendment,
00:00:40.289 --> 00:00:43.509
property tax amendment three. Let's jump into
00:00:43.509 --> 00:00:47.450
budgeting 101. Take us through the process because
00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:51.079
it's not an overnight. process that you go through,
00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:54.259
your team goes through in management and budget.
00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:56.500
It's really a lengthy process. Walk us through
00:00:56.500 --> 00:00:58.740
it. Yeah, so it really is, you know, it's pretty
00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:02.619
much the entire year. A lot of pieces that the
00:01:02.619 --> 00:01:04.760
public sees, there's work done behind the scenes
00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:08.519
on it. So we open it up to departments to start
00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:13.040
making their budget requests about March. A couple
00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.859
months of them inputting their budget requests,
00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:20.379
reviewing it. and collating it, we then have,
00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:24.340
in May, we have some, the administrator has budget
00:01:24.340 --> 00:01:26.939
hearings open to the public, viewable online,
00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:30.340
of each department's requested budgets. That's
00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:34.340
really the administration's first chance to see
00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:36.719
and hear what departments are asking for, what
00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:40.319
their justifications are. And then from March,
00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:43.120
and I like to say that, you know, building the
00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:45.469
budgets, like putting a puzzle together but you
00:01:45.469 --> 00:01:47.489
don't necessarily know what the final picture
00:01:47.489 --> 00:01:51.310
is until the very end because the departments
00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:54.349
put in their budget requests and then after that
00:01:54.349 --> 00:01:58.250
we get an idea of what our property taxes may
00:01:58.250 --> 00:02:00.269
be for the upcoming year so we get an estimate
00:02:00.269 --> 00:02:03.250
of property taxes from the property appraiser.
00:02:03.790 --> 00:02:06.609
that can tell us whether we have enough funding,
00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:08.469
or we may have enough funding at our current
00:02:08.469 --> 00:02:10.830
tax rate, or we need to increase or potentially
00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:12.849
decrease to be able to fund that budget. And
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I guess using your analogy of the puzzle and
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puzzle pieces, I guess when you get that information
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from the property appraiser, it gives you that...
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cover the box, the box cover the puzzle, and
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you can see where you have to put the pieces
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together. I would say it gets most of it because
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even in June we get that estimate as well. One
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of our largest expenses out of our general fund,
00:02:35.259 --> 00:02:38.099
our property tax funded area, we also get in
00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:41.120
June is our constitutional officer's budget.
00:02:41.139 --> 00:02:44.099
So their budgets are completely separate. Their
00:02:44.099 --> 00:02:46.039
requests are directly to the Board of County
00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:47.979
Commissioners. It doesn't necessarily go through
00:02:47.979 --> 00:02:51.629
that administrative budget hearing process. Once
00:02:51.629 --> 00:02:55.509
we have all of that information in, the property
00:02:55.509 --> 00:02:58.469
taxes, the requested budget, we kind of take
00:02:58.469 --> 00:03:02.409
it all in, digest it, and then in July, we present
00:03:02.409 --> 00:03:05.030
to the board a recommended budget. That's the
00:03:05.030 --> 00:03:07.909
county administration's recommended budget. It's
00:03:07.909 --> 00:03:10.229
taking everything that the department's requested,
00:03:10.849 --> 00:03:13.810
identifying what we can fund, what we may not
00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:16.129
be able to fund, and maybe even moving stuff
00:03:16.129 --> 00:03:18.189
around from one fund to another to be able to
00:03:18.189 --> 00:03:21.389
make sure we have that full picture of the budget.
00:03:22.530 --> 00:03:29.169
Then from July, the adoption process of the budget
00:03:29.169 --> 00:03:34.490
is a two -part public hearing in September. That's
00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:36.530
when we bring in, and this is kind of a foreign
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concept to most people, is the carry forward.
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So we have a recommended budget, and from there
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we add on top of it anything, any projects, any
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grants that may have been funded in the current
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year, not yet complete, added on to the budget,
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not new funding, but appears to be additional
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increases to the budget, but not necessarily
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increases. So it's a two -part process for approval.
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We just finished the, on September 15th, the
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board approved the final adopted budget for fiscal
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year 2027. That budget starts October 1st. And
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then from there, really, we're kind of monitoring
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it, any changes that are needed, any agenda items
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or board decisions that may change the budget,
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as well as, you know, obviously, the impact of
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Amendment 3, if that passes as well. This six
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- to nine -month process you just walked us through,
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Wade, to make up, to create the budget and get
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the budget approved, it's made up of various
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funds. Most of the public may not realize anything
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is just one budget one checking account if you
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will or one savings account if you will it's
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actually made up of 89 individual funds walk
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us through what some of those funds are and how
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they're broken up and used sure so yes 89 individual
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funds when most people think of the budget they
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just think of the total budget the 1 .9 billion
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dollar budget 89 individual budgets that make
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up that one number There's there's various sources
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and uses that can make up a different fund. That's
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kind of our way of separating things Utility
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services you wouldn't want necessarily community
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wouldn't want their Utility builder water and
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sewer to build to go to parks and recs So we
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have a separate fund that controls these certain
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revenues are going to these certain purposes.
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So various types of funds there impact fees tourist
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development taxes various debt service, plenty
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of special revenue funds. You talked about utilities.
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That's a special fund or special account that's
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an enterprise fund. Talk about what some of the
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enterprise funds we have. So our two enterprise
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funds are both utilities and solid waste. The
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enterprise fund and that they have to operate
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kind of individual as their own business in nature.
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They don't Neither of them rely on property taxes.
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They have their own revenues, either charges
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for water or sewer bill. For solid waste, we
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have special assessments that are added on to
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the property tax as an assessment, not property
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tax -derived, a non -ad valorem assessment. And
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each of those revenues go to support those operations.
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So you're billing your budget six to nine months.
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It's broken up into various funds, 89 different
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funding components of the budget. Talk about
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the revenue that's needed to support the budget,
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the different revenue sources, some of the primary
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sources of funding and money that the county
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gets to help fund the budget. So, yes, again,
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$1 .9 billion budget. It's not all property taxes.
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About $426 million for the fiscal year 27 budget
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is made of property taxes, but there's various
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other funding sources. Again, I mentioned Utility
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charges for services, that's primarily utility
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services. Special assessments we have. It could
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be impact fees as well as the solid waste. We
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do have other taxes, tourist development tax
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I mentioned. Some fuel taxes as well. Those are
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really the primary revenues that make up part
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of the budget. But again, not all property taxes,
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certainly other. other avenues for revenue sources.
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Looking at some of the materials you've presented
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to the public in these budget hearings and other
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presentations, there's also things such as interest
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earnings and and fines and forfeitures. I mean
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there's just a variety of sources of funding
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that help fuel the budget. Right, so yeah, interest
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earnings that can fluctuate with the economy,
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with the market, as well as it can fluctuate
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with depending on how much funds we have available
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on hand. If we're If we're in a position where
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we're spending down any fund balance, then our
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interest earnings would go down as a result.
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So as you're building this budget, you get the
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information from the property tax appraiser,
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other sources of information. You get the different
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budgets from the constitutional officers. The
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puzzle, as you describe it, starts to come together.
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Hopefully no puzzle pieces have fallen onto the
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floor and get lost in the carpet. And you're
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building your budget. You start to see the picture.
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You've got your different sources. Give us kind
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of a snapshot of different service areas, because
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most people may think, okay, you've got your
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budget, you've got your money, it just goes into
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one big pot, and everybody kind of withdraws
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their money from that checking account, if you
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will, for the departments. But you have specific
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service areas that you have to budget for. Right,
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right. So yes, each department kind of has their
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own assigned service area, I guess, assigned
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to them. Utility services is one of the big ones,
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solid waste as well. They're both considered
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a physical environment service area. Public safety
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service area, that's going to be your EMS, your
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fire services, your emergency management, as
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well as your medical examiner, as well as any
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certain other funds out there. We have impact
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fees for fire EMS. That's going to be part of
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that public service, public safety component
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as well. Transportation. That's kind of self
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-explanatory. We have property tax allocated
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to transportation, but as well there are some
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other revenues as well. Impact fees go toward
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transportation. We have a sidewalk trust fund
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that developers have to pay into from time to
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time if they don't meet certain requirements
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and those dollars are then going into that transportation
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service area. Well, Wade, thank you so much for
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budgeting 101. You really helped put the pieces
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together to build the puzzle. And one thing to
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note that all of this is transparent. You put
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your budget online, it's available on the website.
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You mentioned the budgeting sessions through
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the county administrator. Those videos are on
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the budgeting website. And it's a very transparent
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process that your team presents. So Wade Schroeder,
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Director of Management and Budget for St. John's
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County, thank you so much for joining us on this
00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:07.070
episode of County Conversations. Thank you. For
00:10:07.070 --> 00:10:09.129
this episode of County Conversations, thank you
00:10:09.129 --> 00:10:10.950
so much for joining us. We'll look forward to
00:10:10.950 --> 00:10:13.549
seeing you again real soon. You've been listening
00:10:13.549 --> 00:10:16.110
to County Conversations with Director of Public
00:10:16.110 --> 00:10:19.129
Affairs for St. John's County Wayne Larson. If
00:10:19.129 --> 00:10:21.269
you'd like to keep the dialogue going, like,
00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:23.669
share, and leave a review on our social media.
00:10:23.970 --> 00:10:26.850
For news, events, and resources, make sure you
00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:31.970
visit our county website, sjcfl .us. That is
00:10:31.970 --> 00:10:34.529
sjcfl .us.
