Sheriff submits $196 million budget request, cites market pressure on pay and retention

Sheriff Dennis Lima submitted the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office proposed certified budget for fiscal year 2025–26 at $196,015,000, a 9% increase over the current year, saying the rise is driven primarily by personnel costs and market pressures on recruitment and retention.

Lima told the Board of County Commissioners that about 85% of the sheriff’s operating budget is people-related and that “this request exceeds the annual growth of property tax revenues” for the first time in his tenure. He said the increase includes a 6% market adjustment for pay, 1.5% for overtime tied to training and backfill, about 1% for higher retirement contributions and a smaller amount for health-care cost increases.

The sheriff emphasized the agency’s statutory and contracted responsibilities, saying roughly $80 million of his office’s services — about 40% of its operating budget — reflect services the board delegates to the sheriff, including correctional facility operations, county probation, school safety positions and juvenile programs. He said those “BCC-vested” services create added budgetary…