Kissimmee, Osceola County also finalized budgets
At Thursday’s City Council meeting, St. Cloud leaders voted 4-1 to adopt new mobility fees, then voted unanimously to approve a 15% discount to those fees.
Mobility fees are a onetime charge assessed against development construction that creates additional impacts on the transportation system, whether it be a new or expanded development, building, or a change of land use to a more intense trip generation, as Assistant City Manager Dave Tomek explained.
The prior week, the Osceola County Commission also voted to increase those fees to keep up with the transportation infrastructure needs of a quickly-expanding county.
Council heard input from the public regarding the validity of the report as well as the significant impacts the new fees will have on builders and developers. Attorney Jo Thacker asked the Council to conduct another study with an independent consultant.
“I don’t think there’s any confidence in the study. I also think you need to do a full business-impact analysis. It wasn’t done,” she said. “You don’t know what these impact fee increases are going to do. You have no idea, because the study doesn’t include it. So how can you say, ‘We’re going to go forward with these increases,’ and not understand what it’s going to do? I’ll tell you what it’s done. Since last week, my clients have already lost two contracts. And that’s in a week. Gone.”
Council members voiced concern over the congestion issues St. Cloud is facing as a result of its exponential growth.
“I get hundreds of calls and talk to a lot of people here that are worried about the congestion and the cost here now,” said Council Member Ken Gilbert. “Those are the people that elected me in this position to represent them to control growth. I don’t have any tools in my toolkit to do that. This is a tool in the toolkit to do that. This is the only tool I have in two years to help the citizens that are here now to get better roads, infrastructure, and eliminate some of the congestion… There’s actually a seven-year gap that the mobility fee has not been raised.”
Mayor Nathan Blackwell agreed that City residents want relief from the congestion.
“If this room right now was filled with City residents, I’m fairly confident that if we were to take a vote from them, overwhelmingly, the majority would say, ‘Hey, don’t even increase them that much. Can you increase them more and stop all the growth and help with infrastructure?’” he said. “We certainly need to improve and add more infrastructure. And unfortunately, that takes money. It takes a lot of money to do that.”
Council Member Shawn Fletcher presented of compromise: to adopt 85% of what a city study offered, which would put the fee for a single-family residential at $14,501, and also reduce industrial, commercial and other categories by 15%.
“This decision is going to have huge ramifications on the economic future of our City and our transportation network,” Fletcher said. “The County adopted at $21,000.”
Council members ultimately voted 4-1 to adopt the new fees at 100% contingent on a subsequent resolution, which passed unanimously, that provided for a discount of 15%.
At the meeting, the Council also approved the 2025 fiscal year budget of $273.5 million, with 31.6% of the budget allocated to capital projects such as two fire stations and the first phase of a public safety complex. That budget also keeps the city’s property tax millage rate at 5.1128, the rate of the last 12 years.
City Finance Director Jeff Cooper told Council that all City departments worked to maintain or decrease their budgets, resulting in an operating budget decrease of 1%.
“This is the first time in a long time I’ve heard a decrease,” Gilbert said. “As a citizen of the City, the increase has been significant to all the families. So I’d like to thank you and your finance department to lowering the budget and lowering costs for the citizens.”
KISSIMMEE'S BUDGET SIMILAR — At its Sept. 17 meeting, the Kissimmee City Commission approved a $273.9 million budget, with a 4.6253 millage rate that's also stayed steady for years.
COUNTY’S BUDGET OF $2.8 BILLION APPROVED— The Osceola County also approved its $2.9 billion Fiscal Year 2025 budget, which begins Oct. 1, that is heavy on transportation projects while kept the millage rate stable.
The new budget includes a $22 million Buenaventura Boulevard improvement project, design work for updates to Carroll Street from John Young Parkway to Michigan Avenue, designs for the southern extension of Cross Prairie Parkway that is intended to connect to a new Florida’s Turnpike interchange for south St. Cloud and safety improvements for Marigold Avenue and Nova Road.
The Sheriff’s Office also requested 19 new deputies in the budget for meeting peak service demands, and $13 million is budgeted for Campbell City Fire Station improvements.
And, the budget includes $8.3 million for Osceola Prosper, a now self-funded plan to offer paid tuition for all Class of 2025 graduates to Valencia College’s Osceola or Poinciana campuses or Osceola Technical College, and $3 million in buydown funds to help developers pay mobility fees on affordable housing projects.
