ORANGE PARK – Director of finance John Villanueva walked the Town Council through its multiple revenue funds last week ahead of the council’s upcoming proceedings to create its 2021-22 fiscal year budget.

Villanueva did the same a year ago, but with two new council members this year, he decided to go through the town’s funds again. He said there are three major funds: seven non-major funds, two proprietary funds and two judiciary funds. There’s also a $1.5 million fund made up of Cares Act money, which he said is a special situation.

“The General Fund is the town’s main operating fund...and it has a variety of major revenue sources,” Villanueva said. “You also have the Gas Tax Fund, which is the largest special revenue fund the town has, and it’s comprised of a six-cent and five-cent sales tax.” The other major fund is the Sales Tax Capital Project Fund, which is the local government infrastructure surtax as revenue, he said.

Villanueva emphasized the current millage rate is 5.8781 and that this millage rate is a tax against the property values of homes in Orange Park. That’s another way of saying the higher the property values in Orange Park, the more money that millage rate produces for the Town. If property values go up, a rollback rate becomes a possibility and this rate is often a lower rate that will raise the same amount of money as the previous year’s higher rate. It’s essentially the rate that ensures residents will pay the same amount of property tax.

He said the preliminary taxable property value in the jurisdiction of Orange Park is $651,900,000. He said that represents an increase in property values of 4.5% compared to the previous year and that property values are increasing at a rate of 5.2%, on average, compared to the last five years. Revenue for property taxes is averaging about $3.4 million during the last four years as a result.

The next biggest source of revenue for the town’s General Fund is the charge for services. This includes a $500,000 fire department budget, a sanitation budget of $538,000, state revenue sharing for things such as alcohol taxes and more.

On the more contentious side of the town’s budget, Villanueva said the town’s Red Light Camera Fund has a gross revenue of $857,000 during the last five years. He said the town pays for six cameras, which includes magistrate fees and legal expenses incurred with administration for the program, and that the average net proceeds are about $435,000 for the last four fiscal years.

That’s the equivalent of 7.2 mills in property tax.

“There was a time when this program looked like it might go away, but I don’t think there’s much happening on that now,” Villanueva said. “Six-point-six percent is needed to make up for the Red-Light program if it went away. It goes to show you how much revenue we’re generating off of this program. It’s controversial but it is one of the town’s steady revenues.”

Villanueva said more than 70,000 cars pass through Orange Park every day, which means every day 70,000 cars are likely to pass through one of the town’s six red-light cameras. Another big tax is the Communication Service Tax, which is a tax on retail sales of telecommunications, satellite service, television and more. That is trending upwards of about $600,000 with an average of $593,000 earned each year over the last five years.

“Seven sources are about 87% of the total general fund revenue,” Villanueva said.

The largest special revenue fund is the Gas Tax Fund, which has two major revenue sources within it: a six-cent fuel tax and a five-cent fuel tax. That’s used, in part, to fund roadway maintenance, street lights and traffic signals and transportation capital projects.

These are just a handful of the revenue sources that help Orange Park and how the council will set a millage rate for the 2021-22 budget.