Agenda 06-02-2026; 8-a - Minutes for May 5, 2026

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25 1 Slide#34 Questions? ORANGE COUNTY 2 3 Chair Hamilton thanked the County Manager for the presentation. 4 Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked for the breakdown between lump sum property tax payments 5 and property taxes paid on a payment schedule. 6 Travis Myren said he would look into it. 7 Commissioner McKee asked if the County Manager considered what other reductions could be 8 made to reduce the tax rate increase to 2 cents. 9 Travis Myren said not specifically to 2 cents. He said he instituted a hiring freeze,and departments 10 were directed to develop flat budgets. 11 Commissioner McKee described the other possible increases which will affect residents, such as 12 fire taxes and user fees. He said he would like information on how to lower the tax rate increase to avoid 13 cumulative large increases in future years. 14 Travis Myren said that he would share information on mandatory and non-mandatory services 15 offered by departments. 16 Chair Hamilton asked how many commissioners are interested in a scenario of a 2-cent tax 17 increase. 18 Commissioner Bedford said that a reduction from 3.75 cents to 2 cents is the equivalent of$5.9 19 million. 20 Commissioner Portie-Ascott said she would also like to see a scenario of no tax increase. 21 Commissioner Carter thanked the County Manager and staff for their work on the budget. She 22 highlighted some of the reductions and some of the increases in the budget. She said it's important to 23 communicate the tradeoffs. She said she liked to see a scenario of no tax increase and a 2-cent increase. 24 Vice-Chair Fowler thanked the County Manager and staff for their work on the budget. She noted 25 that cutting the tax rate impacts the debt to revenue ratio and that the modeling several years out is at 26 19%. She said that the policy is that they want to keep it at below 15% and cutting revenues makes that 27 ratio worse,which could impact the interest rates the county receives when taking on debt. 28 Chair Hamilton said that could change what the Board decides to fund for capital. 29 Commissioner Bedford said the recommended wage increase is $1.86 million, which would still 30 leave$4 million to reduce. She said there are a multitude of scenarios and it's too ambiguous to ask what 31 a budget could look like. She said she would like to hear from county departments on their budgets and 32 propose budget amendments. She said that otherwise they'd be putting the County Manager in the 33 position of cutting personnel. She said when looking at mandatory vs. discretionary, they could cut the 34 budget to just what's mandatory but then end up doing it poorly. She cautioned against asking for 35 scenarios from staff.