The Citrus County Commission today approved its budget for Fiscal Year 2010-11.

The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

The proposed $214 million budget reflects no change in the current millage rate of 6.4967. It embodies an 11.2 percent decrease from last year’s budget due to falling tax revenues, most notably a second consecutive year of decreasing property values.

The millage rate has been the same for two years now.

The commission adopted its tentative millage, or local property tax rate, at the Sept. 14 meeting. The millage cannot be increased once the tentative rate has been adopted..

The 2008-09 budget was $258 million for FY 2008-09.

Commissioners expressed their satisfaction with the new budget, as did County Administrator Brad Thorpe. "We started early and worked as a team," Thorpe said. "Congratulations to the work of the county constitutional officers and county staff.

Commissioner Winn Webb said that the county has been way ahead in planning, but cautioned, "We need to work on next year's budget as soon as possible." He said that everyone, including the constitutional officers have gone "above and beyond to make this work."

Much credit for creating a workable budget was given to County Commission Chairman Gary Bartell, who helped steer the budget process from start to finish.

Next year, however, might be a different story, if Commissioner John Thrumston's predictions come true. "Next (budget) year, you have even bigger problems. You may have to raise the millage rate. We've run out of extra erasers and things," Thrumston said.

The gross taxable value of the county tax roll continued to decline, decreasing from $10.02 billion in 2009 to about $9.6 billion this year, according to the Jan. 1, 2010 values, upon which the budget is based. Meanwhile, there is some good news for taxpayers for the new fiscal year: the "rollback" rate of 4.99 percent means that residents should see their taxes reduced by that amount.

• More information about the county's budget can be found here