We keep hearing about how cutting Florida property taxes is going to cause cities and counties to cut the budgets of the vital services like police and fire. The police and fire unions have come out against the tax cuts, because of course they have. Let’s take a look at what that means.
In another installment of “government is spending money like a kid who found dad’s credit cards” we look at the Kissimmee Fire Department. Let’s take a look at their budget and see how money is being spent:
- In FY 2020-21, the department had a budget of $15.07 million and ran 13,500 calls (pdf warning)
- In FY 2021-22, the department had a budget of $16.57 million and ran 15,542 calls (pdf warning)
- In FY 2022-23, the department had a budget of $17.3 million and ran 15,041 calls (pdf warning)
- In FY 2023-24, the department had a budget of $19.9 million and ran 14,549 calls (pdf warning)
Then for the following fiscal year, the department’s budget ballooned to $24.71 million, despite the fact that they didn’t run an increased call volume, having run 14,837 calls, and then for the year after that, the budget climbed again to $31.2 million. So what changed that necessitated such a drastic increase in budget?
The difference between FY23-24 and FY25-26 is a 56% increase in the fire department’s budget in just two years. A big part of that is in staffing costs. The fire department went from a 3 shift model, where firefighters work 24 hours on and get 48 hours off, to a 4 shift model, where firefighters work 24 hours and get 72 hours off. Despite the fact that firefighters are working 25% less, they are being paid the same amount. This does absolutely nothing to increase the quality of service, but the firefighters get a lot more time off for the same money, so there is that. On an hourly basis, firefighters just received a 34% raise.
That’s not the only increase in costs. Administration costs climbed from $3.5 million to $5 million ( 42% increase) in the same time span. In short, the city is simply throwing money around to the detriment of the taxpayer. How did the city get the money? They raised taxes, of course.
These localities in Florida are spending money left and right. It’s time to rein in this ridiculous spending spree. Fire services can afford some cuts, and so can the rest of government.
7 Comments
JM · July 25, 2026 at 6:03 pm
If they had retention problems, and most of the firefighters asked for the change, maybe it could be considered. But did anyone even have the idea of telling the firefighters what the impact to their pay would be? I’m sure they didn’t bother to even ask for a pay concession for reduced work.
It’s *always* public safety that is going to take the hit, according to anyone passing any tax measure, ever. Except, for the East Baton Rouge Parish Library System. They have a dedicated millage (I don’t live there anymore, but since I’m an LSU grad, I pay attention to what goes on in that shit hole.)
300k library card holders give them this: East Baton Rouge voters on Saturday approved continued funding for their local library system, rejecting complaints in some quarters that a 9.5-mill property tax raised too much money for 15 branches throughout the parish.
The library tax proposal will generate $59.5 million a year for a system that pays its own way – salaries, construction and maintenance. Libraries in similar-sized cities often rely on their local government’s general funds to pay for some of their operations, local library officials said to counter arguments that they raised too much money.
Stealth Spaniel · July 25, 2026 at 9:17 pm
A new person at work told me that Florida was surprisingly expense. She, hubby, and dogs moved to Tampa/St. Pete 4 years ago. My 2 older aunts had citrus farms in the area starting in the ’50s. She said the citrus farms are long gone, replaced by subdivision after subdivision. She worked In corporate at Abercrombie and Fitch. Her apartment rent was $1800 a month, her utilities were as high as California’s, yet she had to tell people the starting salary was $12 an hour. I said, well Florida used to have an amazing low cost of living. I guess 8 million New Yorkers changed all of that. In 1970, my aunt paid $65 on 20 acres of citrus for the year. As usual, taxation is theft.
Joe Blow · July 26, 2026 at 6:14 am
They’re not cutting section 8 money, are they? Not cutting medicare spending, you can bet. Not going to be cutting SNAP payments, sheeeit, dey finna go up!
That everything is so inverted and still functional just baffles the shit out of me.
oldvet50 · July 26, 2026 at 11:59 am
I’m not going to say I begin to understand the costs associated with providing public services, but I do know that costs have vastly increased over the past 10 years and quality of service has degraded. The only question I have is why did you provide your statistics about the fire departments budget vs calls? I would think the major costs are fixed and the calls are the variable cost (a smaller percentage of overall cost). I think a more meaningful stat would be budget vs real firefighter wages (not increased administrative employees).
Divemedic · July 26, 2026 at 1:07 pm
One of the reasons for needing a Fourth shift that the fire chief mentioned in the article was the high number of calls they were running. I put them in there to show that the numbers were virtually unchanged.
Elrod · July 26, 2026 at 5:42 pm
Whenever the discussion about reducing the cost (and size) of government starts getting serious the threats to cut critical services, primarily LE and Fire/Rescue, but also “the rpecious schools,” resume. The ridiculous number of school administrators is never discussed, nor is the per-student cost vs student performance; per-event cost of LE and F/R, or “wants vs needs” of spending.
Same old, same old, the necessary stuff is held hostage and ransomed for tax maintenance and/or tax increases.
Astroturf – Area Ocho · August 6, 2026 at 3:40 am
[…] county governments are flush with cash. Kissimmee fire department recently gave their fire department 15% more time off by adding a fourth shift, but with the same pay. Just in February, that same fire department bought a new heavy rescue truck […]
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