City Budget and Millage — Fellsmere, Florida

The City of Fellsmere levies 5.3500 mills for fiscal 2025-26, up from 5.0000 mills the year before, according to the Florida Department of Revenue Table 1 for Indian River County.

The DOR table puts the Fellsmere city levy at $994,935 for 2025-26, compared with $836,833 at 5.0000 mills in 2024-25, an increase of $158,102 or 18.9%. The adopted rate sits 2.8% above the rolled-back rate of 5.2020, the rate that would have raised the same revenue as the year before on the new tax roll. Dividing each levy by its rate gives the taxable value behind it: $994,935 divided by 5.3500 mills is about $186.0 million, and $836,833 divided by 5.0000 mills is about $167.4 million.

The longer run comes from Schedule 7 of the Indian River County annual financial report. Its 2016 to 2019 columns show Fellsmere at 5.2756, 4.9599, 4.9599 and 5.3662 mills, and its 2020 to 2025 columns show 5.2210, 5.3226, 5.3226, 5.2210, 5.5150 and 5.0000. In plain terms, a Fellsmere home with $100,000 of taxable value pays $535 in city tax at 5.3500 mills (100 times 5.35), before county, school and district levies.

The Fellsmere City Council, as the city's governing body, adopts the budget and millage at public hearings, working from a budget that the City Manager drafts and implements under the Manager-Council form of government.

The Administration page says the City Manager is the chief administrative official of the City of Fellsmere, reports directly to the City Council and drafts and implements the annual budget; the city moved to the Manager-Council form of government in 2005 through a charter amendment. The Administration office lists 772-646-6303, and the city's address is 22 S. Orange Street. Under the manager, the Department of Finance & Accounting handles central accounting, budget preparation and monitoring, investment of public funds and preparation of all financial reports.

State law fixes the calendar. Under Florida Statutes 200.065, within 35 days of certification of value each taxing authority, Fellsmere included, must tell the property appraiser its proposed millage, its rolled-back rate and when its public hearing will be held, and the first substantive issue at each budget hearing is the percentage increase in millage over the rolled-back rate. Florida Statutes 200.081 caps any municipality, Fellsmere included, at 10 mills except for voted levies, so the 5.3500 rate uses a little over half of the city's legal ceiling.

The city keeps its budget books on a Budgets page that runs from the Budget for 2009-2010 through the Budget for 2025-2026, a Tentative Budget for 2026-2027 and a Budget for 2026-2027. The 2026-27 rate does not appear on the 2025 DOR table, so this page reports the 2025-26 figure until the state publishes the next comparison. Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Fellsmere website.

Property tax supplied only $752,175 of the $10,922,062 that Fellsmere reported across all funds in the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, about 6.9% of the total.

The share is simple arithmetic from two EDR cells: $752,175 in ad valorem taxes divided by the $10,922,062 total is 6.9%. The largest single line in fiscal 2024 was federal money, $2,315,020 in American Rescue Plan Act funds booked in a Fellsmere special revenue fund. The penny sales tax for infrastructure brought $927,094, and two state-shared sources, the half-cent sales tax at $452,768 and municipal revenue sharing at $355,728, went to the general fund.

Charges on electric service add up as well: a utility service tax on electricity of $429,831 and an electricity franchise fee of $306,306. Spread over the 2024 municipal population of 4,990, the EDR table puts total Fellsmere revenue at $2,188.79 per resident. Water and sewer charges belong to the city utility's enterprise fund, which the Fellsmere water and sewer page covers.

Smaller Fellsmere taxes fill out the general fund. The state communications services tax returned $161,534, the utility service tax on water $100,819 and general fund interest earnings $185,231, while the first local option fuel tax, $162,696, was booked in a special revenue fund. Compared with the year before, Fellsmere ad valorem taxes rose from $687,741 in fiscal 2023 to $752,175 in fiscal 2024, and total revenue rose from $8,927,828 to $10,922,062.

Fellsmere reported $10,844,051 in spending across all funds in fiscal 2024, led by physical environment programs such as stormwater, water and sewer, with law enforcement the largest general fund line at $1,214,640.

The law enforcement line shows $1,214,640 from the Fellsmere general fund and $1,241,971 in all funds. That general fund amount exceeds the whole $752,175 in Fellsmere ad valorem taxes booked the same year. General government, which covers the legislative, executive, financial and administrative, and legal counsel lines, cost $946,372.

In the Fellsmere books, the physical environment lines carry the most money. Other physical environment spending reached $3,019,031, mostly from special revenue funds, and flood control and stormwater took $1,384,395. Road and street facilities cost $911,648 and parks and recreation $495,515. Total spending of $10,844,051 came in just under revenue for the year, by $78,011 (10,922,062 minus 10,844,051), after a fiscal 2023 in which Fellsmere spent $8,997,236.

Fellsmere has the highest city millage in Indian River County for 2025-26, at 5.3500 mills against 3.4455 in Sebastian and 2.9816 in Vero Beach, according to the Florida Department of Revenue.

The same DOR table shows two sides of the Fellsmere increase. Its levy grew 18.9%, the most of the five cities, yet its adopted rate was only 2.8% above the rolled-back rate, the smallest margin of the five. Sebastian adopted a rate 14.3% above its rolled-back rate and Vero Beach 15.0%.

The city rate is only one line on a Fellsmere tax bill. County ACFR Schedule 7 lists a total county-wide rate of 12.8681 mills for fiscal 2025, which its notes say is borne by all property owners within the county; adding the 5.0000-mill Fellsmere rate for that year gives 17.8681 mills (12.8681 plus 5.0000), before the other special district rates that Schedule 7 lists separately. The county, school board and Emergency Services District rates are explained on the Indian River County budget and millage page.