A citizen-focused look at the City’s FY2025–26 General Fund, the services it supports, and how property taxes fit into the larger revenue picture.
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 source page reports rounded department figures and percentages. The displayed rounded amounts total about $34.03 million, below the exact $35.997 million appropriation, so the difference is disclosed rather than filled with an invented category.
Residents do not experience a budget as accounting lines. They experience it as services: public safety, parks, maintenance, infrastructure, technology, planning, and city operations.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City management, finance, legal, human resources, purchasing, records, and citywide support.
Fire suppression, emergency medical response, prevention, and related public-safety operations.
Parks, recreation, community programs, public spaces, events, and quality-of-life services.
Facilities, fleet, maintenance support, infrastructure upkeep, and operational support services.
Technology systems, communications, cybersecurity, and digital service support.
Parks, recreation, community programs, public spaces, events, and quality-of-life services.
City management, finance, legal, human resources, purchasing, records, and citywide support.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
Planning, development review, permitting, inspections, zoning, and community growth management.
Planning, development review, permitting, inspections, zoning, and community growth management.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
Parks, recreation, community programs, public spaces, events, and quality-of-life services.
City management, finance, legal, human resources, purchasing, records, and citywide support.
Planning, development review, permitting, inspections, zoning, and community growth management.
Planning, development review, permitting, inspections, zoning, and community growth management.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City management, finance, legal, human resources, purchasing, records, and citywide support.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
City services and operating functions supported through the General Fund.
The FY2026 budget shows approximately $7.7 million for Law Enforcement Operations and an exact $4,912,991 for Fire Services in the General Fund.
Law-enforcement operations, patrol, response, investigations and related staffing.
City-operated fire suppression and emergency response shown in the General Fund.
The adopted budget also reports a separate $8,868,259 Fire Assessment Fee fund.
Property taxes are pooled with other General Fund revenues. This comparison uses spending shares to show relative scale; it is not a legal earmark of each property-tax dollar.
The detailed revenue lines reconcile exactly to the reported $34,082,515 operating General Fund total.
The adopted budget shows $12,980,258 from Ad Valorem / Property Tax, the largest revenue source shown.
This section groups mapped residential parcels into assessed-value ranges reported in the supplied property data. Assessed value is the value used as the starting point for taxable value after Florida assessment limits and exemptions. The ranges help residents see how many properties fall at or below, and above, the $250,000 threshold being discussed.
Each bar shows the share of residential parcels in that assessed-value range. The percentages use the 6,899-parcel assessed-value total as the denominator.
The Florida League of Cities analysis reports averages for Mount Dora homestead parcels. These figures describe current exemptions and Save Our Homes effects, not a city revenue-loss projection. Unlike the assessed-value distribution above, these figures describe homesteaded parcels and the protection provided by Save Our Homes and existing homestead exemptions.
The published homestead data for Mount Dora shows that current law already shields a meaningful portion of qualifying home value through Save Our Homes and homestead exemptions. The reported combined protected share is 50.29%.
Only a small share of homestead value is already protected under current law.
The published city-level homestead figures above show the measured effect of Save Our Homes and existing exemptions before any proposed reform.
Understanding the difference between market value and assessed value is important when discussing Florida property taxes. Market value represents the estimated selling price of a property under current market conditions. Assessed value is determined by the County Property Appraiser using Florida law and is the basis for calculating taxable value after assessment limitations, such as Save Our Homes, and applicable exemptions are applied.
Proposed homestead-exemption changes would affect the assessed or taxable value of qualifying homesteaded properties, not the property's market value. Assessed value therefore provides the more useful measure for showing how many residential properties fall above or below the $250,000 threshold.
Picture 4 typical homes in this city. Roughly this many already sit at or under a $250,000 assessed value:
The 55.9% figure above covers every mapped residential parcel citywide, homesteaded or not. An exact homestead-only breakdown by assessed-value tier is not available in the source data used for this page, so no exact qualifying-home count is presented.
A large share of parcels falling below the threshold does not translate dollar-for-dollar into the same share of city property-tax revenue disappearing. Revenue effects depend on taxable value, exemption eligibility, final legal language, phase-in rules, and replacement funding—not parcel count alone. Current-law protections already shield about 50.3% of the typical homesteaded property value shown in the separate homestead dataset.
Property taxes are a major General Fund revenue source, but they are not the only source supporting Mount Dora's day-to-day services. Other taxes, state-shared revenue, fees, charges, transfers, and other legally available resources also contribute.
A responsible year-over-year comparison must use the same fund definition and the same adopted-budget basis in both years. The figures already verified on this page establish the FY2026 operating picture, but they do not always provide a comparable citywide FY2025 total.
Spending can be reduced, but the practical question is which services, positions, contracts, projects, or maintenance cycles would change. This page does not label spending as necessary or wasteful without a separate operational or performance review.
The budget source reports $34,082,515 in operating General Fund revenue and $35,997,048 in adopted appropriations. It explains that the larger adopted amount includes final changes, encumbrances, carryforward items and approved project funding.
Mount Dora operates its own Fire Department. The source shows $4,912,991 for Fire Services in the General Fund and $8,868,259 in a separate Fire Assessment Fee fund.
The source page lists rounded amounts and percentages. The displayed amounts total about $34.03 million, so this page does not invent a balancing category for the difference.
No. The tier file covers a broader residential parcel population. The separate FLC analysis reports 4,282 homestead parcels.
No. It is the current ad valorem General Fund revenue line. A future impact depends on the final policy design and replacement funding.
