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Vero Beach council adopts 2.9816 millage rate and 2025–26 budget, votes 5-0
Summary
The Vero Beach City Council on a 5-0 vote adopted an operating millage of 2.9816 mills — 14.96% above the rollback rate — and approved the city's fiscal year 2025-26 budget. Public comment raised concerns about spending priorities and downtown upkeep; airport staff clarified a private contribution line item.
The Vero Beach City Council unanimously approved an operating millage rate of 2.9816 per $1,000 of assessed value and adopted the city's fiscal year 2025-26 budget at its meeting on Oct. 25, 2025.
The ordinance establishing the millage rate states the 2025-26 operating millage of 2.9816 mills is greater than the rollback millage of 2.5935 mills by 14.96%. The city also adopted an ordinance appropriating funds for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2025, and ending Sept. 30, 2026, setting sums for operating expenses, supplies and personnel and authorizing budget amendments to carry forward purchase orders and grants outstanding as of Sept. 30, 2025.
Why it matters: The adopted millage sets the tax burden on property owners inside the city limits for the coming fiscal year and funds the city's operations and services. The budget ordinance gives staff authority to manage appropriations and to amend the budget for carryforwards and subsequently received grants.
During the public-comment period, Bridal Hetty, who identified herself as a Vero Beach resident and a candidate for city council, criticized council spending priorities and urged adjustments to how tax dollars are used. "You don't have to spend money on removing benches because a homeless person is sitting on it," Hetty said, and expressed opposition to cuts in maintenance staffing and to closures of downtown amenities. Hetty also pressed for living-wage jobs as a solution to affordable-housing concerns rather than expanded taxpayer-funded housing programs.
Council members asked for and received clarifications on several budget line items. A council member asked about a cash carryover cited on the budget (read on the record as "9,931 thousand $726"); staff said the carryover figure changes depending on projects that roll forward and that the number had been updated since the preliminary budget to balance revenues and expenditures. Council members also asked about a private contribution line totaling roughly $4,859.84; Brandon Danback, operations manager at the Vero Beach Airport, said the contribution comes from a corporate air partner for the airport customs facility and is recorded as a pass-through charge.
The council took the following formal actions: it voted 5-0 to adopt the millage ordinance and voted 5-0 to adopt the annual budget ordinance for fiscal year 2025-26. The roll call recorded "yes" votes from Councilmember Voss, Councilmember Dingle, Councilmember Carroll, Vice Mayor Moore and Mayor Coutinho.
The meeting record includes a thank-you from a council member to staff reviewer Rudolph Mueller for a line-by-line review of the budget documents. The city clerk read the ordinance text into the public record before the vote, and the meeting adjourned after the public-comment period closed.
