A plain-English look at where the City's money comes from, where it goes, and how property-tax revenue fits into the adopted budget — built from the adopted FY2026 budget and public homestead/parcel data.
The General Fund is the City's main operating budget. The figures below show recurring General Fund revenue, the FY2026 adopted spending plan, property-tax revenue, and the share of recurring General Fund revenue provided by property taxes.
The adopted budget provides a department-by-department view of the City's $31.8 million General Fund, including budgeted reserves.
Residents experience the budget through services: police and fire response, roads, parks, recreation, planning, technology, library access, and the administrative systems that keep the City operating.
Law enforcement services are provided under contract with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
Fire and emergency medical services are provided through the City of Orange City under contract.
Parks maintenance, recreation programs, community events, and public facilities.
Planning, zoning, building review, code-related services, and growth management.
Roads, rights-of-way, facilities, maintenance, and other public infrastructure services.
City management, city clerk, human resources, communications, and executive support.
Legal advice, representation, and support for City operations.
Accounting, budgeting, purchasing, payroll, and financial management.
Technology systems, cybersecurity, records systems, and user support.
Insurance, shared citywide costs, and general governmental support.
DeBary does not operate standalone police or fire departments. The City budgets these services in its General Fund through agreements with neighboring public-safety agencies.
Law-enforcement services are provided by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. The FY2026 General Fund budget includes $4,787,536 for law enforcement, or 15.1% of General Fund spending.
Fire and emergency medical services are provided through the City of Orange City. The FY2026 General Fund budget includes $3,914,652 for fire services, or 12.3% of General Fund spending.
This converts the adopted General Fund into a resident-friendly $100 example. It does not mean each revenue source is legally restricted to these exact uses.
Taxes are the largest revenue category, but transfers, reimbursements, permits, fees, and shared revenues also support operations.
DeBary's adopted FY2026 General Fund includes $11,650,000 in current and delinquent property-tax revenue out of $31,810,712 in total revenue.
Just value approximates market value. Assessed value reflects Florida assessment limitations such as Save Our Homes before exemptions are applied.
The Florida League of Cities reports how Save Our Homes and homestead exemptions affect homesteaded parcels in each city.
The League's DeBary data reports an average Save Our Homes differential of $135,944. When standard homestead exemptions are included, the average combined amount shielded rises to $185,268, or 59.2%.
Market value represents the estimated selling price. Assessed value is the value produced under Florida assessment rules and is the more useful measure for comparing parcels with a proposed assessed-value threshold.
Proposed homestead-exemption changes would affect the assessed or taxable value of qualifying homesteaded properties, not market value.
Picture four typical residential parcels. Roughly this many have an assessed value at or below $250,000:
The tier file covers all residential parcels. The Florida League of Cities separately reports 7,497 homesteaded parcels with a median non-school assessed value of $196,175. The provided sources do not publish an exact homestead-only count above and below $250,000, so this page does not invent one.
Property-tax revenue is deposited into the General Fund along with other unrestricted revenue. Together, those resources support many core municipal services. Other operations are financed through utility rates, assessments, grants, impact fees, debt proceeds, or other dedicated funds and generally cannot be treated as interchangeable General Fund money.
The answer depends on the measure. Both the General Fund and the all-funds adopted budget are lower than FY2025, largely because several major capital-project appropriations were completed or reduced.
DeBary's budget shows a smaller all-funds total than FY2025 while maintaining contracted public safety, public works, parks, development, and administrative services.
The plain-English takeaway from DeBary's adopted FY2026 budget.
These answers summarize what the adopted budget and parcel data can and cannot establish.
No. It presents adopted budget figures. Efficiency and service quality require a separate audit or performance review.
No. Property taxes equal 36.6% of General Fund revenue and 25.8% of all-funds spending.
No. Law enforcement is provided by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, while fire and emergency medical services are provided through the City of Orange City.
Generally no. Utility revenues are tied to providing and maintaining utility services and may be restricted by law, accounting rules, or debt covenants.
No. It covers all residential parcels in the supplied tier extract.
No. A defensible estimate would require proposal-specific eligibility and parcel-level taxable-value data not included in the supplied sources.
The city-specific figures come from the adopted budget, the Florida League of Cities homestead dataset, and the supplied residential parcel-tier extract.
Used for all-funds totals, General Fund revenue and spending, department budgets, reserves, service-delivery arrangements, and year-over-year changes.
View official financial documents →
Used for the homestead parcel count, median assessed value, Save Our Homes differential, and exemption percentages.
Used for market-value and assessed-value distributions and the $250,000 threshold comparison covering 7,321 residential parcels.
Caveat: It includes homesteaded and non-homesteaded parcels.
This page does not combine the sources into a projected revenue loss because the necessary eligibility and taxable-value assumptions are not provided.
