Orange County board of commissioners, which includes the county mayor, have approved four- and five-figure pay raises for themselves as part of this year’s $9 billion budget, even as the county searches for ways to curtail unnecessary spending.
Under the new county budget, effective Oct. 1, county commissioners received a 4 percent raise, increasing their annual salary to $135,262 — a $5,211 jump.
The salary for Orange County’s mayor similarly saw a 4 percent increase this year. It’s now $271,658 annually, about $10,500 more than in the last fiscal year.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, not a single county commissioner — nor outgoing Mayor Jerry Demings, whose seat is up for election this November — offered any sort of comment on the salary bump.
In 2023, the Board of County Commissioners changed the rules for how they can calculate salary changes for themselves. The change aligned the county with a state formula that boosted their pay 25 percent that first year alone.
County leaders this year, however, also agreed to give other county employees a 4 percent pay increase as well. Of course, not every staff member in the county is paid in the six figures.
The salaries of Florida counties’ highest-paid county officials vary widely throughout the state, based on county population, job title and the methods each municipality uses for adjusting pay. Same goes for cities like Orlando, where Orlando’s mayor now has an annual salary of $275,659.45 and city commissioners receive a salary of $85,817.97.
County sheriffs, for their part, are some of the most well-off public officials in Florida, state data shows. Most of Florida’s 67 county sheriffs earn over $200,000 a year. Orange County Sheriff John Mina, one of the top earners, had an annual salary of $286,449 as of this past year.
Orange County sheriff John Mina, one of the top-earning sheriffs in Florida, had an annual salary of $286,449 as of last year.
Some of these six-figure salaries have become a sore spot for county employees who aren’t elected — and generally earn less than their similarly educated counterparts in the private sector — but who likewise provide vital public services to the community.
Teachers in Orange County Public Schools, via their union, recently criticized the OCPS superintendent for plans to cut teachers’ jobs. They have pointed to the exorbitant salaries of district executives as an alternative target for cutting costs — including the superintendent’s own salary of more than $360,000.
The generous salaries of county officials — who have the intensive job of crafting local legislative policy and addressing the needs and interests of the community — are perhaps subject to enhanced scrutiny this year, in the era of cost-cutting pressure tactics levied by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) first popularized by the Trump administration and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Florida’s knock-off version, overseen by the chief financial officer and created by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration last year, is dubbed FAFO (Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight). CFO Blaise Ignoglia — who’s facing currently criticism for his own use of taxpayer funds for sketchy promotional ads — last year accused Orange County of wasteful spending.
The raises also come as the county prepares to potentially lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in property tax revenue in the coming years.
That’s if a measure on the general election ballot this fall, Amendment 3, is approved by at least 60 percent of Florida voters this November.
The measure would expand Florida’s homestead property tax exemption, allowing homeowners to pay less in property taxes — funding that local governments rely on to pay for public services such as police, firefighters, public safety, roads, parks, libraries and public transit.
According to the county, Amendment 3, if passed, could reduce Orange County’s property tax revenue by an estimated $165 million in 2027 and $275 million in 2028. “If Amendment 3 is approved, the Board will face difficult decisions about spending, service levels, and pursuing other legally available sources of revenue,” a recent county news release states.
Amendment 3 was born out of an ambitious pitch from DeSantis (to put it generously) to eliminate property taxes in Florida entirely.
Florida legislators ended up passing a softball, watered-down version of that idea to go to voters for a final say this November.
DeSantis has distanced himself somewhat from the measure, sharing that he won’t campaign for the final version, necessarily — unlike his campaign against the legalization of recreational pot — but plans to vote for it himself, even so.
Even if a complete elimination of property taxes in Florida isn’t on the table, Amendment 3 — amended to exempt school property taxes — is expected to cut local property tax revenue statewide by an estimated $45.8 billion over the next five years.
Opponents of the measure include various chambers of commerce, the Orlando Economic Partnership, the Florida AFL-CIO, the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Library Association, the League of Women Voters, 1000 Friends of Florida, and labor unions representing police officers and firefighters.
