Winter Springs proposes keeping property taxes flat for 2025-26

The City of Winter Springs is looking to keep its property tax rate flat for the coming year — although debate is still expected to be “heated” next week. 

The Winter Springs City Commission will hold a budget workshop at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Winter Springs City Hall. After the budget workshop, commissioners will hold a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. and are expected to approve the tentative maximum millage rate for the coming year. 

Winter Springs City Manager Kevin Sweet is asking commissioners for a millage rate, which is used to calculate property taxes, of 2.62, the exact same rate as last year. 

“We jumped through a lot of hoops to make sure (raising taxes) didn’t happen,” city spokesman Matt Reeser said. 

That translates to $2.62 per $1,000 of a home’s value. So if a home’s taxable value was $200,000, that homeowner would pay $524 in property taxes annually to the city. 

Property taxes are calculated after exemptions, which include homestead exemptions and special exemptions. Check here for an explainer on how property taxes are calculated, and check here for a list of exemptions. 

You can read through the proposed Winter Springs 2025-26 budget here. In his letter to city commissioners, Sweet said each director was asked to justify each dollar spent, called “zero-based budgeting”, rather than starting with last year’s budget as a baseline. 

“This was accomplished with no increase in our millage rate and without reductions in the outstanding levels of service provided to our citizens,” Sweet wrote. “This is a monumental task for Fiscal Year 2026 as we continue to face additional challenges such as labor and supply shortages. This budget includes no additional staff, inclusive of a concerted effort to reduce the reliance on outside consultants.” 

While the city is proposing to keep the tax rate flat, the average home’s taxable value is expected to increase, which leads to an increase in revenue for the city. Those increases are expected to generate an additional $538,889 annually in tax revenue for the city. 

In order for the average homeowner to not pay any more tax as their property’s taxable value rises, Winter Springs would need to drop its millage rate to a number called the “rolled-back” millage rate, which would keep the city’s property tax revenue flat. That “rolled-back” millage rate number would be 2.473. 

“At 2.6200 mills, the FY 2026 operating millage rate would be 6% more than the estimated ‘rolled-back’ rate of 2.4730 mills,” officials wrote in the proposed budget. 

Last year, Winter Springs commissioners approved an increase in the property tax rate, from 2.41 mills to 2.62. That vote was split 3-2, and came during an election year. The two Commissioners who voted against the increase, Matt Benton and Rob Elliott, lost re-election.

The Winter Springs City Commission is expected to vote Monday on the tentative millage cap, requested at 2.62 mills. The first public hearing for adoption of the Fiscal Year 2026

Budget is scheduled for Sept. 8, 2025 and the final public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 22, 2025.

Editor’s note: Have questions about the upcoming budget you’d like answered? You can meet Oviedo Community News Government Accountability Reporter Abe Aboraya at Foxtail Coffee next Monday, July 14, from 2-4 p.m. The address is 158 Tuskawilla Road in the Winter Springs Town Center. 

Capital spending spikes in next budget

So what’s different in the 2025-26 budget?

A bigger percentage of the Winter Springs budget is being spent on capital projects – things like land, equipment, and physical improvements to city property. In 2024, the city spent about 8% of its budget, or $7.5 million, on capital projects. Next fiscal year, it’s projected to be 32.5%, the largest category of spending in the budget. 

That capital money includes $1.7 million to design the new East Wastewater Treatment Plant, $2.5 million to repair the Tuskawilla Crossings Stormwater Pond and additional $1.5 million in stormwater rehabilitation projects in the city. The budget also includes $382,500 for the replacement of five police vehicles. 

Additionally, spending on maintenance and repairs is also expected to nearly double compared to 2024, from $3.7 million to $7.2 million. 

You can download the proposed budget here. 

Overall, staffing levels for Winter Springs are trending down. The city had 187 full-time employees in 2023-24, and is projected to have 184 full-time employees in the coming year. The budget does have a maximum 4% raise for employees included. 

“We continue to run with one of the lowest tax burdens in the region,” Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann said. “We run a tight ship. … I’m proud of these folks. We’re trimming. We’re cutting. We’re trying to get it done.”

McCann said Monday’s budget workshop could get “heated,” though, with recent tensions on the city dais. Winter Springs Commissioner Paul Diaz has advocated for less taxing and spending from the city. As mentioned in a previous OCN article regarding budgeting, Winter Springs’ budget, per capita, is leaner than the three cities that border it. 

In addition to the tax rates for 2025, McCann said he expects to ask commissioners to reconsider a move to allow a developer to remove trees without paying a tree mitigation fee. 

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.