Property tax base — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian's 2025 tax roll carries $2,490,228,650 in taxable value, the base the City of Sebastian taxes for fiscal year 2025-26, out of a just (market) value of $4,426,308,825.

Those figures come from the Florida Department of Revenue 2025 Data Book, which lists each Indian River County city on its own row (FDOR municipal report, Sebastian 2025). The roll year and the city's fiscal year are one year apart: values set on the 2025 roll pay for the budget year that runs from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026. The Sebastian row pairs the 2025 roll with a 3.4455 mill city rate and $8,580,083 in taxes levied, the same rate and levy that the department's levy comparison lists for fiscal year 2025-26 (FDOR Table 1).

Sebastian holds about 7.8 percent of the county's taxable value: $2,490,228,650 divided by the countywide $31,758,608,187 on the FDOR all property taxable value table is 0.0784. Vero Beach, with roughly 1.7 times Sebastian's just value ($7,382,588,484 against $4,426,308,825), has nearly twice its taxable value (FDOR, Vero Beach 2025). Fellsmere's whole roll is smaller than Sebastian's annual growth: $185,969,070 against a Sebastian gain of $192,259,065, which is 2,490,228,650 minus 2,297,969,585 (FDOR, Fellsmere 2025).

Sebastian's taxable value rose 8.37 percent from the 2024 roll to the 2025 roll, close to the countywide 8.59 percent and the statewide 8.36 percent, and it has grown about 2.8 times over the ten rows of the city's own schedule.

On the state data, Sebastian went from $2,297,969,585 in 2024 to $2,490,228,650 in 2025 (FDOR, Sebastian 2024; FDOR percent change row). The county moved from $29,245,831,442 to $31,758,608,187, which is 31,758,608,187 divided by 29,245,831,442, or 1.0859; Florida as a whole went from $3,209,812,750,807 to $3,478,113,402,548, a ratio of 1.0836 (FDOR county row; FDOR statewide row).

The City of Sebastian's budget message for fiscal year 2025-26 gives a lower growth figure for the same year: taxable values increased 7.21 percent, largely due to increases in assessed values of properties which were on last year's tax roll (FY 2025-26 Approved Budget Book). The same budget book prints a third figure two pages earlier: a certified fiscal year 2026 taxable value of $2,435,691,924, 5.99 percent above the fiscal year 2025 final value of $2,297,969,585 (FY 2025-26 budget, taxable value change). This page uses the Department of Revenue figure for comparisons with the county and state because the same table supplies all three.

The city's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report traces the climb from $885,009,868 in its first row to $2,490,228,650 in its last; 2,490,228,650 divided by 885,009,868 is 2.81 (Sebastian ACFR Schedule B3). One labeling caution: the report prints its newest row as tax year 2024 and fiscal year 2025, yet that row's value and its 3.4455 mill rate are the ones the Department of Revenue files under the 2025 roll and fiscal year 2025-26, so the printed years in the Sebastian schedule appear to sit one year earlier than the state's labels.

The same Sebastian schedule splits the newest row into $3,053,455,219 of real property and $127,928,713 of personal property, less $691,155,282 of tax-exempt property (ACFR Schedule B3). It also estimates the actual taxable value at $3,944,747,737 and reports the taxable assessed value as 63.13 percent of that figure, up from 54.07 percent in the first row.

Most of Sebastian's recent gain comes from higher assessments on homes and businesses already on the roll rather than from new buildings, according to the City of Sebastian's fiscal year 2025-26 budget message.

The same message says new construction and additions have started to level off (FY 2025-26 budget message). The Department of Revenue tracks new construction only at county level for this purpose: Indian River County added $626,802,570 of taxable new construction on the 2023 roll, $671,828,198 on the 2024 roll and $628,511,704 on the 2025 roll (FDOR new construction table). The 2025 county figure is the first decline in that run of three years.

Assessment caps shape how fast existing Sebastian homes can rise. The budget book's worked example takes a homesteaded property valued at $350,000 the year before, lets its taxable value rise by the 3 percent cap to $360,500, subtracts a $50,000 homestead exemption, and shows the city tax going from $959 at 3.1955 mills to $1,070 at 3.4455 mills, an increase of $111 (FY 2025-26 budget, ad valorem example). The budget book runs a second example for a Sebastian property without the homestead exemption, whose taxable value may rise no more than 10 percent a year: at the full 10 percent, a $350,000 value becomes $385,000 and the city tax goes from $1,118 to $1,327, an increase of $209.

Exemptions take a large bite from the Sebastian roll. Assessed value of $3,181,383,932 minus total exemptions of $691,155,282 leaves the $2,490,228,650 taxable value; the two homestead exemptions alone account for $231,883,167 and $231,332,640 (FDOR municipal report, Sebastian 2025). Taxable value equals about 56 percent of just value (2,490,228,650 divided by 4,426,308,825 is 0.5626).

Florida Power and Light is the largest property taxpayer in Sebastian, with $74,191,548 of taxable assessed value, or 3.22 percent of the total, in the city's 2025 financial report.

The list shows how spread out the Sebastian base is (Sebastian ACFR Schedule B4). The ten largest taxpayers together hold 6.42 percent, so more than 93 percent of taxable value sits with other owners, the homes and businesses that make up the rest of the Sebastian roll. The top ten's combined value roughly doubled from $74,431,412 in 2016 while its share edged down from 6.69 percent. One of the ten 2025 entries is a private person and is left off this page.

The utility's jump stands out: Florida Power and Light's Sebastian value rose from $19,251,530 in 2016 to $74,191,548 in 2025, and its share from 1.86 percent to 3.22 percent (ACFR Schedule B4). The schedule computes its 2025 shares against a total of $2,300,949,862; 74,191,548 divided by 2,300,949,862 gives the printed 3.22 percent.

At 3.4455 mills on the 2025 roll, Sebastian's tax base produces a levy of $8,580,083 for fiscal year 2025-26 on the state table, and the city budget counts on 96 percent of certified proceeds, $8,310,378, in current collections.

A mill is $1 of tax for each $1,000 of taxable value, so one mill on Sebastian's $2,490,228,650 base raises about $2,490,229, and 3.4455 mills raise $8,580,083, the figure on the state table (FY 2025-26 budget, revenue overview; FDOR Table 1). Florida Statute 200.065 requires cities to budget at least 95 percent of the certified proceeds, and Sebastian's 96 percent allowance covers early-payment discounts, unpaid bills and Value Adjustment Board changes.

The Department of Revenue comparison shows the levy rising 16.8 percent over fiscal year 2024-25, when 3.1955 mills raised $7,343,162, and 14.3 percent above the rolled-back rate of 3.0149 mills, which would have raised $7,507,790 (FDOR Table 1). The difference between the two years is $1,236,921 (8,580,083 minus 7,343,162), and it combines the growth of the base with the 0.25 mill rate increase. How the Sebastian City Council set that rate is covered on the city budget page of this guide.

The Indian River County Property Appraiser sets each parcel's value, and the city only sets the rate (FY 2025-26 budget). For that reason, growth in the Sebastian base shows up in the levy even when the council holds the millage flat.

Most of the levy is collected. In the city's Schedule B5, the fiscal year 2025 levy of $7,347,884 was 95.3 percent collected within the year, and total collections to date of $7,124,971 equal 97.0 percent of the levy (Sebastian ACFR Schedule B5). The same rate of collection, 95.3 percent within the year, appears for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2025, just under the 96 percent of certified proceeds that the budget book counts on.