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 $29.8 million General Fund.
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.
Patrol, investigations, evidence, traffic enforcement, and other law-enforcement services.
Fire suppression, emergency medical response, prevention, inspections, and rescue services.
Facilities, streets, grounds, building maintenance, and related physical-environment services.
Parks maintenance, recreation programs, athletic fields, and community facilities.
City administration, general government, transfers, grants, and organizational support.
Accounting, budgeting, purchasing, utility billing support, and financial management.
Planning, zoning, building and development review, and community growth services.
Technology systems, cybersecurity, communications infrastructure, and user support.
Library collections, public access, programs, and community learning services.
Business development, downtown and waterfront support, and economic initiatives.
Tavares directly budgets both police and fire departments in its General Fund. Fire services also receive support through a separate fire assessment fund.
The Police Department is budgeted at $6,662,601 for FY2026, or 22.3% of General Fund spending.
The Fire Department is budgeted at $5,021,298 in the General Fund. A separate Fire Assessment Fund provides $2,064,182 that is transferred into the General Fund for assessable fire-service costs.
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.
Tavares' adopted FY2026 General Fund includes $12,687,652 in current and delinquent property-tax revenue out of $29,826,614 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 Tavares data reports an average Save Our Homes differential of $82,286. When standard homestead exemptions are included, the average combined amount shielded rises to $130,176, or 59.9%.
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 5,181 homesteaded parcels with a median non-school assessed value of $160,550. The provided sources do not publish an exact homestead-only count above and below $250,000, so this page does not invent one.
Property taxes are a major General Fund source, but Tavares also operates utilities and other separately accounted funds.
The answer depends on the measure. The General Fund is nearly level with the FY2025 revised budget, while the all-funds adopted total is lower.
Tavares' budget documents both additions needed to maintain service levels and a detailed list of items removed or reduced before adoption.
The plain-English takeaway from Tavares' 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 42.5% of General Fund revenue and 18.3% of all-funds spending.
Yes. Both are city-operated. Fire is also supported by a dedicated fire assessment fund.
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, 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 7,208 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.
