Pasco County Clerk previews $500,000 preliminary FY26 budget increase, warns proposed MSTU would not fund clerk duties

Clerk and Comptroller presented a preliminary fiscal-year 2026 county-related budget on April 15, flagging a roughly $500,000 (5.2%) proposed increase from FY25 and asking commissioners to treat any higher pay raises for other constitutional officers equally.

The presentation underlined that the clerk’s county-related functions are funded under Florida law and are not municipal services that an MSTU may lawfully fund. “An MSTU is not an appropriate funding mechanism for my office pursuant to this statute and the county is not authorized to create the MSTU for the purposes of funding the clerk's office,” the Clerk and Comptroller said, citing the list of municipal-type services in Section 125.01 and the clerk’s statutory duties under Section 218.35 and other authorities.

Why it matters: the clerk’s warning narrows the county’s potential options for raising revenue and places the funding question squarely on the general county budget. The clerk also detailed several planned one-time and recurring investments that the office says are necessary to maintain services as Pasco grows.

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