Broward Commissioners Adopt $9.2 Billion Budget and Hold Tax Rate at 5.6 Mills

Broward County commissioners adopted a $9.2 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year on Tuesday and held the county's overall property tax rate flat at 5.6 mills, a decision that will generate more revenue than last year because taxable property values across the county have continued to climb.

The vote came at the second and final public budget hearing, the point in Florida's annual truth-in-millage process where county commissions must formally set both the tax rate and the spending plan it funds. Broward's adopted rate sits above the rolled-back rate of 5.39 mills, the level that would have produced roughly the same revenue as the prior year from existing property.

Under Florida law, adopting a millage rate above the rolled-back rate is treated as a tax increase for disclosure purposes even when the numerical rate is unchanged. That distinction is the source of most of the argument that surrounds county budget hearings across the state each September.

Broward is Florida's second most populous county, with roughly 1.9 million residents, and its budget funds a sheriff's office, a regional transit system, a major airport and seaport, libraries, parks, water and wastewater utilities and the county's share of health and human services. The scale of the plan makes it one of the largest local government budgets in the Southeast.

How the $9.2 billion breaks down

The adopted plan divides into three main components. The operating budget, which covers day-to-day government functions including salaries, contracts and services, accounts for roughly $5.6 billion. The capital budget, which funds construction and long-lived infrastructure, totals about $2.88 billion. Debt service, the county's annual payments on money already borrowed, comes to roughly $720.3 million.

The capital figure is unusually large relative to the operating budget, and that reflects the nature of Broward's assets. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades are both county enterprises with substantial ongoing construction programs, and their capital spending is largely funded through user fees, bonds and federal grants rather than through general property taxes.

That structure matters for how residents should read the headline number. A county budget of $9.2 billion is not $9.2 billion of property tax money. A significant share is enterprise revenue that cycles through airport landing fees, cruise terminal charges, water and sewer bills and dedicated transportation funding sources.

The general fund, supported primarily by property taxes, is the portion where commissioners exercise the most discretion and where the millage debate actually bites. Public safety, courts, libraries, parks and general administration draw from that pool, and increases in one area generally require offsets elsewhere.

The millage debate

Holding the rate at 5.6 mills means a property owner whose assessed value did not change will pay the same county tax as last year. A property owner whose assessed value rose will pay more. For homesteaded properties, Florida's Save Our Homes provision caps annual assessment growth at 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, which limits how fast the bill can climb.

Non-homesteaded property, including rentals, second homes and commercial buildings, is subject to a 10 percent annual assessment cap on the non-school portion of the bill. That gap between the homestead cap and the non-homestead cap is one reason rental property tax bills in fast-appreciating Florida counties have risen faster than owner-occupied bills.

Mayor Mark D. Bogen noted during the process that the county has lowered the millage rate three times over the past decade and has not raised it. That framing, which treats the nominal rate as the relevant measure, is common among county officials statewide. Advocates of rolling back the rate argue the relevant measure is the revenue collected, not the rate charged.

Both framings are defensible and both are incomplete. A flat rate against rising values produces revenue growth without a rate vote. A rolled-back rate against rising values holds revenue flat in nominal terms while costs, particularly personnel and insurance, generally rise faster than that.

Where the money goes

The Broward Sheriff's Office is the single largest draw on the county's general fund. BSO provides countywide services including the jail system, regional communications and the medical examiner, and it also contracts to provide municipal policing for a number of Broward cities under separate agreements funded by those cities.

Personnel costs drive most of the year-over-year growth in a county operating budget, and Broward is no exception. Collective bargaining agreements, pension contributions through the Florida Retirement System and health insurance costs for employees and retirees combine to push the baseline upward before any new program is added.

Transit is another significant commitment. Broward County Transit operates the bus network across the county, and the county also administers a voter-approved transportation surtax that funds a separate program of road, transit and mobility projects with its own governance structure and its own revenue stream.

Human services, including homeless assistance, elderly services, children's programs and behavioral health, occupy a smaller share of the total but tend to generate the most public comment at budget hearings. Those programs are where the practical consequences of a rolled-back rate would be felt most directly.

The wider county budget season

Broward's vote came during the same week that county commissions across Florida finalized their own fiscal 2027 plans. Volusia County adopted a $1.7 billion budget that took the general fund to the rolled-back rate. Palm Beach County commissioners also approved their fiscal 2027 budget this month.

The pattern across counties has been uneven. Some commissions held nominal rates flat and accepted the revenue growth that came with rising values. Others rolled back, in several cases funding the difference by cutting specific programs or drawing one-time money from reserves. The choice generally tracked local politics more than local fiscal capacity.

What all of them share is a set of cost pressures that do not respect the millage debate. Property and casualty insurance for county buildings, vehicles and liability exposure has risen sharply. Construction costs for capital projects remain elevated. And counties that rely on state and federal pass-through funding have been budgeting cautiously against uncertainty in those streams.

Hanging over every one of these decisions is the property tax measure Florida voters will consider in November. If approved, it would substantially expand the portion of a home's value shielded from non-school property taxes, reducing the base that county budgets like Broward's are built on.

What Amendment 3 would mean for Broward

The proposed constitutional amendment would increase the non-school homestead exemption in stages, and Florida's Revenue Estimating Conference has put the recurring statewide revenue reduction at roughly $12 billion once fully phased in. That figure covers both the larger homestead exemption and a tighter assessment growth cap on non-homesteaded property.

Counties do not have a simple lever to replace that revenue. Florida constrains local option taxes tightly, and the practical responses available to a county commission facing a reduced tax base are to cut spending, raise the millage rate on the remaining base, increase fees, or draw down reserves. Each of those carries its own political cost.

A study released this week by the Florida Housing Coalition examined the second of those options and concluded that if local governments raise rates to offset the lost revenue, the increased burden would fall disproportionately on rental property, which does not receive the homestead exemption. The study estimated an average apartment unit's annual property tax bill could rise by about $406 in 2028 and about $554 by 2031.

Broward is a heavily renter-occupied county by Florida standards, which makes that dynamic locally relevant. Roughly a third of Broward households rent, and the county has among the highest rent-to-income ratios in the state, a condition that predates the amendment debate entirely.

What residents will actually see

Property tax bills go out in November, and Broward property owners will be able to compare their bill against the TRIM notice they received in August. The TRIM notice already reflected the proposed rates, so for most property owners the November bill should not contain a surprise relative to that estimate.

The county portion is only one line on a Florida property tax bill. School district taxes, municipal taxes for residents inside a city, and special district levies for items such as hospital districts, water management and fire assessments all appear separately. A homeowner frustrated by a rising total bill may be looking at growth driven by a taxing authority other than the county.

Residents who believe their assessed value is wrong have a separate remedy through the Value Adjustment Board, with a filing deadline tied to the TRIM notice date. That process addresses valuation, not the tax rate, and it is the only avenue for challenging the assessment itself.

Homestead exemption filings for new owners are due by March 1 for the following tax year, and a missed filing is one of the most common reasons a Florida homeowner's bill jumps unexpectedly after a purchase. Newly purchased property also resets to market value for assessment purposes, which is why a buyer's tax bill frequently exceeds the seller's.

What's next

The adopted budget takes effect October 1, the start of Florida's fiscal year for local governments. From that point, spending is governed by the adopted plan unless commissioners amend it, which they routinely do during the year as grants arrive, projects shift and revenue comes in above or below forecast.

The November ballot measure is the next major variable. If it passes, county staff across Florida will spend the winter modeling its effect on fiscal 2028 and beyond, and commissions will face the millage question under materially different conditions next September.

Broward's capital program also continues on its own timeline, with airport and seaport projects that span multiple budget years and are financed against future user revenue. Those commitments are not easily unwound by a change in the property tax base, which concentrates any fiscal adjustment on the general fund side.

Residents who want to follow the detail can access the adopted budget document and the capital program through the county's Office of Management and Budget, which publishes both the recommended and adopted versions along with the line-item detail that budget hearings rarely have time to cover.