Amid Florida’s property tax debate, cities and counties hike fees to cover rising costs

Amid increased scrutiny of their property tax collections, some cities and counties are emphasizing a different method to fund core services.

They’re turning to service fees to augment their budgets, using them to pay for spiking public safety salaries, construction costs for new fire stations, equipment and digging up aging pipes below busy streets. Tacked onto property tax bills, these fees can’t be spent as freely as general tax revenues, but they often don’t draw the same complaints either.

Ocoee more than doubled its fire fee this year to $139. Kissimmee created a new fire fee of $150 to pay for about 25% of its fire department budget. Oviedo’s stormwater fee is on a path to increase more than 250% by 2033 to $41.54 per month.

Last year, Orlando substantially hiked its stormwater fee – with plans of it nearly doubling by 2028.

And Orange County officials are studying if creating their own stormwater fee could help fund needed upgrades.

Local officials argue that even as they’ve collected large sums in property taxes, the result primarily of surging Central Florida property values, those funds don’t go far enou

gh to meet the needs. For instance, fast-growing Kissimmee will use its new fire fee to help hire 49 firefighters and allow the agency to go from a 56-hour work week to 42 hours – a model encouraged under a new state law.

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