By a unanimous vote, the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors passed their fiscal year 2025 budget Wednesday, May 15 with no increase in assessments for most area property owners.
The per-acre fee will remain at $946.95 to fund the district’s $25 million budget. Some units will see a small decrease. Only three units will see substantial changes.
Dellwood and Los Flores Ranchos property owners will get an $85.38 decrease ($358.89 down to $273.50), while residents of Stonewall-Bay Hill be paying $122.09 more ($317.63 up to $439.72).
ITID’s per-acre assessments have risen steadily over the last four years, going up from $560.99 in fiscal year 2021 to more than $900 for the average ITID property owner in 2024.
The district’s overall budget is $25.7 million, which includes reserves and projects already funded, such as R3 road construction plan and the Unit 20/Santa Rosa Groves improvement project.
ITID’s operating budget for the upcoming year is $19,844,438, down more than $150,000 from the 2024 operating budget of $20,005,334, according to information presented Wednesday by district staff.
ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson has said the major reason the district can hold the line on assessments this fiscal year is because major improvements to the area’s infrastructure, long put off, are mostly caught up. However, the work is always ongoing and must be properly funded if the district is to keep pace, he has said.
For instance, to carry out road and canal maintenance and other tasks, $1,245,000 has been included in the budget for equipment purchases.
Two areas where ITID is budgeting much lower this year are litigation costs ($100,000 in 2025 vs. $500,000 in 2024) and capital expenditures ($2,578,064 vs. last year’s $3,021,154), for a total savings of some $843,000.
Other areas of major savings include short-term equipment rental, down $276,750 to $199,500, and workers’ comp, down $118,743 to $179,256.
One area of projected increase is in personnel, which includes merit and cost-of-living raises totaling $217,006 and representing a three-percent increase. Personnel costs account for $8,272,902 in the proposed budget.
While merit raises can be as much as five percent under the 2025 budget, they are not to be considered automatic, Supervisor Betty Argue made clear Wednesday night.
Hanson told her that staff would present a detailed list of proposed merit raises in September. The 2025 fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
ITID oversees roads, drainage and parks for some 45,000 residents on 27,000 acres in the Acreage/Loxahatchee area. Within its 95 square miles, ITID maintains 96 miles of paved roads, 272 miles of dirt roads, 63 miles of sidewalks, 164 miles of canals, 380 major culverts equaling about 8.5 miles, four pump stations, 18 control structures and 983 miles of swale, which are an integral part of the district’s drainage system.
ITID does approximately 5,000 miles of road grading each year, staff noted.
