Two budget hearings will be held at Winter Garden City Hall (300 W. Plant Street) Sept. 15 and Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. after which the commission will vote on adoption.

An optimistic outlook

Zielonka painted a picture of a city in robust financial health.

Winter Garden has a “spending plan” of $181.3 million. Zielonka noted that the city is carrying $105.2 million in debt and that the general operations have a triple A rating from Moody’s while the bonds for its wastewater treatment facility expansion project are double A-rated from both Moody’s and S&P.

“These ratings reflect the city’s strong financial management,” Zielonka said.

How much a city stocks in reserve funds is another “very important measure” of financial health, Zielonka said. She explained that the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recommends that cities keep two months of operating expenses in reserve, about 16.7 percent of their expenditures. She said that Winter Garden’s General Fund has $14.4 million in reserve for 2027, amounting to 21 percent of expenditures. She added that the city’s goal is to save three months of reserve funds.

“Reserves provide financial stability and allow the city to respond to unexpected circumstances without immediately having to reduce services or make significant changes to the tax rate,” she said.

Ranking disparity

Last year the city bumped the millage rate, which had held steady for seven years at 4.5 mills, to 4.8565 mills. The city proposed holding that rate for fiscal year 2026-2027, which starts Oct.1.

Zielonka spent a few minutes breaking down how property taxes are distributed. She pointed out that while Winter Garden’s millage is 4.8565 mills, taxpayers actually pay a total of 16.2943 mills across all taxing authorities, including Orange County (4.435 mills); the school board (6.449 mills) and special districts (0.554 mills). Of a resident’s total tax bill, she said, Winter Garden receives 30 percent to fund city services.

Zielonka noted that Winter Garden has the “second lowest millage rate among the seven neighboring communities.” The city’s group of “neighboring communities" includes Oakland, Orlando, Edgewood, Maitland, Ocoee, Winter Garden and Apopka. In this group, Winter Garden comes out second to Apopka where the millage is 4.4376 mills.

Winter Garden’s “second lowest millage rate” was a message that was repeated several times during the presentation.

However, Winter Garden only has the second lowest millage if Windermere and Winter Park are left off the list — which they were. Windermere’s 2027 millage is 3.745 mills and Winter Park’s is 4.0923 mills. In a group of nine cities, Winter Garden ranks fourth, squarely in the middle, not the bottom. Including Windermere and Winter Park, lowers the average millage rate among the nine municipalities to 5.12 mills, from the 5.59 mills cited in the presentation — just 0.2458 mills higher than Winter Garden.

Zielonka did not immediately respond to a question about why Windermere and Winter Park were not included in the ranking.

What’s in the General Fund?

The city’s total budget includes multiple funds, including enterprise funds which are self-supporting through user fees and charges ($80 million); special revenue funds ($23 million) and pension funds ($5 million).

Then there’s the General Fund, which pays for the majority of city services and programs.

The General Fund accounts for more than 40 percent of the city’s total $181.3 million budget. It is the city’s second largest fund after the enterprise funds, which include water, stormwater and wastewater and make up 44 percent of the total budget. In July, the city created a new enterprise fund for Building Inspection Services, moving its $1.5 million out of the General Fund.

The city anticipates $75.2 million in General Fund revenues — an increase of nearly $5 million from 2026. About $2 million of that is attributed to a rise in assessed property values. Winter Garden’s gross taxable value rose 7.7 percent to $7.06 billion, according to Zielonka.

Increases in electricity charges, utilities service taxes, red-light camera citations, sponsorships and contributions to Tucker Ranch, and ambulance transport revenue for the fire-rescue department also contributed to the nearly $5 million revenue boost.

The city also expects to collect a total of $32.6 million in ad valorem or property taxes for 2027. Ad valorem taxes are the city’s third largest revenue source (after intergovernmental revenue and charges for services) and the largest revenue source for the General Fund. Property taxes account for 43 percent of the General Fund’s revenue.

“[The] General fund is supported by a diverse revenue base. Property taxes are the largest single source, but they're not the only source supporting city services,” Zielonka said.

Funding public safety

The city has $73.3 million in General Fund expenditures budgeted, 57 percent of which are related to Public Safety.

Of that, $41.2 million is dedicated just to fire-rescue and police — with $779 earmarked per resident for Public Safety.

(For comparison, the next largest sector for General Fund expenditures is General Government, which has a budget of about $10 million and accounts for 13 percent of the General Fund.)

Zielonka spotlit what has become an ongoing discussion across multiple municipalities during budget season: the continuing challenge of funding police and fire-rescue departments as the costs for equipment, vehicles, training and personnel escalate.

“The city spends more on police and fire than it collects in all property taxes combined,” said Zielonka. “The cost of police and fire is $8.5 million greater than the city’s total ad valorem tax revenue. It’s important to clarify that this $8.5 million gap is not a budget deficit. Rather, it illustrates that property taxes alone do not fund police and fire, and the remaining cost is supported by the city’s other general fund revenues.”

While public safety consumes much of the budget, the city does have plans to spend in other areas. Ten percent of the budget is dedicated to Parks and Recreation, “supporting 17 parks, athletic fields, playgrounds, lakefront facilities” together with programs for adults and children and community events.

Another 6 percent is earmarked for what the city calls the “physical environment,” a catch-all for its buildings, grounds, vehicles and cemetery. There’s 5 percent allocated for streets, traffic control systems and sidewalks. And 2 percent is geared for economic development to bring new businesses to Winter Garden.

In the wholly separate capital improvements budget, there is $157.5 million for projects, chief among them the continued wastewater treatment facility expansion, which is allotted $70 million. Zielonka noted that water and wastewater rates will increase 20 percent on Oct. 1, 2027.

“These revenues support significant infrastructure investments, including the expansion of wastewater plant and our septic-sewer conversion projects,” she said.

While the wastewater treatment plant is the biggest capital improvement project Winter Garden is working on, other capital expenditures include $18.3 million for continued revitalization in Historic East Winter Garden; $18 million for street improvements and $5.3 million for improvements to police and fire department facilities.

“ Our goal is to make targeted investments where they're needed rather than simply increasing or decreasing spending across the board. This budget reflects both targeted investments and deliberate efforts to manage costs.”

Taking care of city staff

The proposed budget includes 19 new staff positions —13 in fire-rescue, four in police services and two in General Government —though they won’t be filled immediately. “They’re in the budget right now, however, we’re going to hold off until after Amendment 3 and then reconvene and see how we want to move forward,” Zielonka said.

The budget also includes a 3-percent cost-of-living raise; a “market-based pay adjustment” for fire-rescue personnel; a 5 percent contribution to employee health insurance; and employee pension contributions — 19.4 percent for general employees and 21.4 percent for police and fire personnel.

"These investments are focused on maintaining our ability to recruit and retain employees to provide services that our residents depend on every day,” Zielonka said.

But … what about Amendment 3?

Zielonka described Winter Garden’s General Fund as having “a positive outlook.” If there are “no changes in policy or legislation,” she said, revenues are expected to continue to be greater than expenses and the reserve fund will increase from $14.4 million to $21.3 million in 2031.

But the proverbial elephant that’s been sitting in every municipal budget meeting is Amendment 3’s impact on city budgets (and not just Winter Garden's) if it passes in November. The amendment would raise the homestead property tax exemption on primary residences to $150,000 in 2027 and then to $250,000 in 2028.

“ If the amendment passes and the city takes no corrective action, our model currently projects a potential general fund deficit of approximately $10.2 million by fiscal year 2031,” Zielonka said plainly. “That's not an option. We're not going to do that. This is just a model. I want to emphasize this does not mean that we'll have a $10 million dollar deficit.  The fact that we have healthy reserves today gives us time and flexibility to evaluate appropriate response if the amendment is approved.”