← Florida's 67 counties, by the numbers
Madison County, Florida
Property tax revenue grew 61.2% between FY2019 and FY2025 against a population-and-inflation baseline of 28.2%; operating spending grew 92.0%.
Snapshot
Between FY2019 and FY2025, Madison County's population grew 1.3% and prices in the South region (CPI-U) rose 26.6%. Together they account for 28.2% growth in any figure that kept pace with the county. That is the baseline every figure below is compared to. "At the baseline" figures are what each amount would be if it had grown at exactly that rate since FY2019; "cumulative" sums the yearly difference between the actual figure and that path. They describe the arithmetic, not what the county could or should have done.
Where the money comes from
In FY2025 the county reported $38.9M of governmental-fund revenue before borrowing, transfers and special items. Property taxes were 30% of it.
| Revenue, $ millions | FY2015 | FY2019 | FY2022 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2019–FY2025 | At baseline, FY2025 | Above baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Property taxes | 6.5 | 7.3 | 8.3 | 11.6 | 11.7 | +61.2% | 9.3 | +2.4 |
| State grants and shared revenue | 6.1 | 7.6 | 6.9 | 7.6 | 10.1 | +32.8% | 9.8 | +0.3 |
| Other taxes (sales surtax, fuel, tourist) | 3.8 | 4.1 | 5.4 | 5.6 | 6.8 | +66.8% | 5.2 | +1.6 |
| Other (fines, interest, local grants) | 0.8 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 5.4 | 4.6 | +151.5% | 2.4 | +2.3 |
| Federal grants | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 3.3 | +1620.7% | 0.2 | +3.0 |
| Charges for services | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.9 | +5.9% | 2.3 | −0.4 |
| Permits, fees and assessments | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | −50.4% | 1.1 | −0.7 |
| Total revenue (before borrowing, transfers and special items) | 19.7 | 23.6 | 25.8 | 34.0 | 38.9 | +64.4% | 30.3 | +8.6 |
By account line
The largest revenue lines in FY2025 (up to twenty, each at least $0.5M). Where the state renumbered lines in its 2021 chart of accounts — local option taxes including tourist and fuel taxes, sales surtaxes, communications taxes, permits and fees, state revenue sharing and the half-cent sales tax, state fuel taxes — the old and new codes are shown together as one family so the series is continuous. A line marked ↕ shifted between fund types in one year, which usually reflects a change in how the county reported it. Growth is not shown for lines under $0.25M in FY2019.
| Revenue by account line, $ millions (largest 20) | FY2015 | FY2019 | FY2022 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2019–FY2025 | At baseline, FY2025 | Above baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Valorem Taxes (311) | 6.5 | 7.3 | 8.3 | 11.6 | 11.7 | +61.2% | 9.3 | +2.4 |
| State revenue sharing, half-cent sales tax and other state-shared general government (335.1x) | 2.5 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.9 | 3.8 | +31.0% | 3.7 | +0.1 |
| Discretionary sales surtaxes (312.6x) | 1.8 | 2.0 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.2 | +62.6% | 2.6 | +0.7 |
| Local option taxes: tourist, food and beverage, fuel (312.1x–312.4x) | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.4 | +14.7% | 2.7 | −0.3 |
| Other Miscellaneous Revenues - Other (369.9) | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 2.3 | — | — | — |
| State Grant - Transportation - Other Transportation (334.49) | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 2.0 | +135.9% | 1.1 | +0.9 |
| Other Financial Assistance - Federal Source (332) ↕ | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 1.8 | — | — | — |
| State shared fuel taxes (335.4x) | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | −0.5% | 2.0 | −0.5 |
| Interest and Other Earnings - Interest (361.1) | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 1.5 | +440.8% | 0.4 | +1.2 |
| Other general taxes (319.x) ↕ | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.1 | — | — | — |
| Federal Grant - General Government (331.1) ↕ | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.1 | — | — | — |
| State Grant - Physical Environment - Other Physical Environment (334.39) | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | — | — | — |
| State Grant - Public Safety (334.2) | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.6 | +133.1% | 0.3 | +0.3 |
| State Grant - General Government (334.1) | 0.3 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.6 | −52.3% | 1.6 | −1.0 |
| State Shared Revenues - Economic Environment (335.5) | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | — | — | — |
| Sales - Disposition of Fixed Assets (364) | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | — | — | — |
Source: the county's Annual Financial Reports to the state, as compiled by Florida EDR. Governmental funds. A blank year is a year with no filing.
Baseline = FY2019 property tax revenue grown by population (the filing's countywide estimate, rebased to the 2020 Census) and CPI-U South (fiscal-year average).
Property tax rates and the homeowner
The County Commission's countywide operating millage, from the Florida Department of Revenue's county profiles. Between FY2019 and FY2025 the county's taxable value grew 77.7%, from $685M to $1.22B. The adopted rate went from 10.0000 to 8.8776 mills (−11.2%). The operating levy — taxable value times rate — grew 57.7%, from $6.9M to $10.8M, against a 28.2% population-and-inflation baseline. At the baseline the FY2025 levy would be $8.8M, which on FY2025's taxable value is 7.2168 mills — the "baseline rate" below. The newest usable roll in the profiles (FY2026) carries an adopted rate of 8.6776 mills; the baseline rate is computed through FY2025, the last year with a reported population estimate.
Under Florida's Truth in Millage law (s. 200.065, F.S.), the rolled-back rate is the rate that would raise the same revenue as the year before from the same properties; a rate above it must be advertised as a tax increase. In 5 of the 6 years FY2020–FY2025, the adopted rate was above the rolled-back rate.
Source: Florida DOR County Profiles (the 2017–2025 tax rolls; roll year + 1 = fiscal year). Countywide operating millage of the County Commission only. The baseline rate is the FY2019 operating levy grown by population and inflation, divided by that year's taxable value.
| Tax roll → fiscal year | County taxable value | Rolled-back rate | Adopted rate | Above rolled-back? | Operating levy | Levy at FY2019 baseline | Baseline rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2018 | $681M | 9.7907 | 10.0000 | yes | $6.8M | — | — |
| FY2019 (base) | $685M | 10.0367 | 10.0000 | no | $6.9M | $6.9M | 10.0000 |
| FY2020 | $711M | 9.9619 | 10.0000 | yes | $7.1M | $6.7M | 9.4314 |
| FY2021 | $745M | 9.7056 | 10.0000 | yes | $7.4M | $7.0M | 9.3772 |
| FY2022 | $802M | 9.5711 | 10.0000 | yes | $8.0M | $7.7M | 9.6165 |
| FY2023 | $914M | 9.3278 | 9.8000 | yes | $9.0M | $8.2M | 9.0237 |
| FY2024 | $1.12B | 8.8368 | 9.5000 | yes | $10.6M | $8.5M | 7.5698 |
| FY2025 | $1.22B | 8.8776 | 8.8776 | no | $10.8M | $8.8M | 7.2168 |
| FY2026 | $1.33B | — | 8.6776 | — | $11.6M | — | — |
What that means for a homeowner
An illustration of the rates, not anyone's bill: the county operating levy on three homestead taxable values, at the rate the county adopted, at the rolled-back rate, and at the baseline rate. Three cautions. This is the County Commission's countywide operating levy only. In FY2025 it was 55% of all property taxes levied in the county; the school board, any cities, MSTUs and special districts levy the rest and are not included here. Taxable value is after exemptions, and Save Our Homes caps the yearly increase in a homestead's assessed value at 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, so a long-held homestead's real bill often grew more slowly than the county levy. And the cumulative column holds the taxable value fixed across the years.
| Homestead (county operating levy only), FY2025 | At the adopted rate | At the rolled-back rate | At the baseline rate | Adopted minus baseline, per year | Adopted minus baseline, FY2020–FY2025 cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $150,000 taxable value | $1,332 | $1,332 | $1,083 | $249 | $891 |
| $300,000 taxable value | $2,663 | $2,663 | $2,165 | $498 | $1,783 |
| $500,000 taxable value | $4,439 | $4,439 | $3,608 | $830 | $2,971 |
The financial sections above use the property tax revenue the county reported in its Annual Financial Report, $11.7M in FY2025, against the countywide operating levy of $10.8M computed here. The report's figure covers every county levy — MSTUs, dependent districts and voted debt as well as the operating levy — and is collections rather than the levy, so the two are different series; here they are within 9% of each other. The 2025-roll profile (FY2026) prints a rolled-back rate computed from the prior year's maximum majority-vote rate rather than from the adopted rate, so it is not comparable with earlier years and is not shown; the FY2026 taxable value and adopted rate are.
Where the money goes
Operating spending (general, special revenue and permanent funds, by function, before transfers) was $35.9M in FY2025. Public safety was the largest area at 39%, followed by general government at 33%. Capital projects and debt service funds are shown separately because they move with individual projects and borrowings. Transfers out are shown because some counties fund constitutional officers or enterprise funds by transfer rather than as spending by function; "county outlays" counts those transfers so that counties can be compared on the same footing.
| Spending, $ millions | FY2015 | FY2019 | FY2022 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2019–FY2025 | At baseline, FY2025 | Above baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public safety | 6.7 | 7.9 | 10.8 | 12.7 | 14.2 | +78.5% | 10.2 | +4.0 |
| General government | 4.1 | 5.0 | 6.6 | 8.5 | 11.7 | +134.7% | 6.4 | +5.3 |
| Transportation | 2.4 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 4.4 | 4.3 | +65.4% | 3.3 | +1.0 |
| Physical environment | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | +12.1% | 0.6 | −0.1 |
| Culture and recreation | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.3 | +54.9% | 1.0 | +0.2 |
| Human services | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 1.9 | +172.5% | 0.9 | +1.0 |
| Economic environment | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.0 | +174.4% | 0.5 | +0.5 |
| Court-related | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 1.0 | +23.2% | 1.1 | −0.0 |
| Operating spending (sum of the above) | 17.6 | 18.7 | 23.1 | 31.3 | 35.9 | +92.0% | 24.0 | +11.9 |
| Capital projects funds (before transfers) | 3.0 | 6.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 2.0 | −67.9% | 7.9 | −5.9 |
| Debt service funds (before transfers and refunding escrow) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | — | — |
| All governmental spending by function (sum of the three above) | 20.5 | 24.8 | 23.2 | 31.8 | 37.9 | +52.4% | 31.9 | +6.0 |
| Transfers out of operating funds (to other funds, enterprise funds or constitutional officers) | 15.4 | 20.1 | 20.3 | 24.0 | 26.9 | +33.4% | 25.8 | +1.0 |
| County outlays (all governmental spending plus net transfers out, excluding refunding escrow) | 21.4 | 25.8 | 24.0 | 34.0 | 40.4 | +56.9% | 33.0 | +7.4 |
By account line
Every line of $1.0M or more in FY2019 or FY2025, or at least 1% of operating spending in any year shown, under its function. The filing's lines are the finest level the state publishes; it does not break spending into salaries, operating costs or capital outlay, and it does not name departments. A line marked ↔ moved against another line in the same function between FY2019 and FY2025 while the two together stayed near the baseline — lines inside a function are often recategorized between years, so read it with its pair or group, not alone. Growth is not shown for lines under $0.25M in FY2019.
| By account line, $ millions | FY2015 | FY2019 | FY2022 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2019–FY2025 | At baseline, FY2025 | Above baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public safety | ||||||||
| Law Enforcement (521) | 3.9 | 5.9 | 7.7 | 7.5 | 7.5 | +25.5% | 7.6 | −0.2 |
| Fire Control (522) | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 3.0 | +339.4% | 0.9 | +2.1 |
| Detention and/or Correction (523) | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 2.5 | +266.9% | 0.9 | +1.6 |
| Emergency and Disaster Relief Services (525) | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | +55.9% | 0.4 | +0.1 |
| Protective Inspections (524) | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | — | — | — |
| General government | ||||||||
| Legislative (511) | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 4.4 | +746.1% | 0.7 | +3.7 |
| Other General Government Services (519) | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 3.5 | +207.1% | 1.5 | +2.0 |
| Financial and Administrative (513) | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 2.3 | +36.4% | 2.2 | +0.1 |
| Debt Service Payments (517) | 0.4 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 0.9 | −28.4% | 1.6 | −0.7 |
| Executive (512) | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | — | — | — |
| Transportation | ||||||||
| Road and Street Facilities (541) | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 4.4 | 4.3 | +66.1% | 3.3 | +1.0 |
| Physical environment | ||||||||
| Conservation and Resource Management (537) | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | +21.8% | 0.4 | −0.0 |
| Garbage / Solid Waste Control Services (534) | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | — | — | — |
| Culture and recreation | ||||||||
| Libraries (571) | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.1 | +56.7% | 0.9 | +0.2 |
| Human services | ||||||||
| Other Human Services (569) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 | — | — | — |
| Public Assistance Services (564) | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | +20.2% | 0.5 | −0.0 |
| Health Services (562) | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | −19.5% | 0.4 | −0.1 |
| Hospital Services (561) | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | — | — |
| Economic environment | ||||||||
| Housing and Urban Development (554) | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.7 | — | — | — |
| Court-related | ||||||||
| General Court-Related Operations - Courthouse Facilities (712) | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | — | — | — |
| County Court - Traffic - Clerk of Court Administration (764) | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | — | — | — |
What it costs per resident
County outlays per resident were $2,145 in FY2025, against $1,384 in FY2019. Adjusted to FY2019 prices, that is $1,694, a change of +22.4% in real terms. Operating spending by function was $1,903 per resident; property tax revenue was $622 per resident ($391 in FY2019).
Net change in fund balance
The state filing does not report fund balances directly; the county's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report does. The closest the filing gets is each year's net change: everything that came into the governmental funds (revenues, transfers in, bond proceeds) minus everything that went out (expenditures, transfers out, refunding escrow). A positive year adds to what the governmental funds hold; a negative year draws it down. Years with new bond proceeds show as additions until the proceeds are spent in later years.
All revenues and other sources (including transfers in and bond proceeds) minus all expenditures and other uses (including transfers out and refunding escrow), governmental funds. A refunding nets to about zero.
Debt service and borrowing
Regular debt-service payments (principal and interest, account 517, all governmental funds) were $0.9M in FY2025, 2.3% of county outlays. The filing reports borrowing as "other sources" in the year it is received: new debt (account 384) separately from refunding bonds (account 385). Refunding proceeds either go to an escrow agent (account 585) or are paid out through the debt-service account; both are excluded from debt service and from county outlays. The years below are those in which the county reported $5.0M or more of either kind of proceeds.
No year since FY2015 reported $5.0M or more of debt proceeds.
Compared with peer counties
Peers are the four counties closest in FY2024 population. All figures are FY2024, the most recent year every county has filed. "County outlays" is all governmental spending plus net transfers out (so a county that funds its sheriff by transfer is counted the same as one that reports it by function), excluding refunding escrow. Growth above baseline is property tax revenue growth since FY2019 minus the county's own population-and-inflation baseline, in percentage points. A dagger (†) marks a county whose page carries a data note affecting its FY2019, FY2023 or FY2024 figures.
| County (FY2024) | Population | Property tax per resident | County outlays per resident | Outlays growth FY2019–FY2024 | Property tax growth above baseline since FY2019, pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison† | 18,649 | $624 | $1,823 | +31.9% | +36.1 |
| Gilchrist† | 19,503 | $539 | $1,901 | +48.6% | −0.3 |
| Dixie† | 17,555 | — | $2,359 | +64.0% | — |
| Holmes† | 20,059 | $268 | $1,261 | +27.2% | +2.6 |
| Gulf† | 16,947 | $1,173 | $3,129 | +34.7% | −10.3 |
| Statewide median (65 counties with property tax reported; outlays 66) | — | $666 | $1,770 | +52.5% | +17.7 |
Key observations
What the numbers support. Descriptive, not prescriptive.
- Property tax revenue rose from $7.3M in FY2019 to $11.7M in FY2025, 61.2%. The population-and-inflation baseline was 28.2%: at that rate the FY2025 figure would be $9.3M, so FY2025 is $2.4M above the baseline. Over the 6 years FY2020–FY2025, property tax revenue ran a cumulative $7.1M above the baseline path. Per resident, it went from $391 to $622, which is $491 in FY2019 dollars.
- Taxable value grew 77.7% between FY2019 and FY2025 while the county operating millage went from 10.0000 to 8.8776 mills; the adopted rate was above the rolled-back rate in 5 of the 6 years FY2020–FY2025. The baseline rate for FY2025 — the FY2019 operating levy grown by population and inflation, on FY2025's taxable value — is 7.2168 mills. As an illustration of the rates (the county operating levy only, at a fixed taxable value, not a tax bill): on a $300,000 taxable-value homestead that levy at the adopted rate is $2,663, $498 more than the $2,165 at the baseline rate; over FY2020–FY2025 the difference adds up to $1,783 more.
- Operating spending rose 92.0% over the same period, above the baseline of 28.2%. County outlays rose 56.9%: at the baseline rate they would be $33.0M in FY2025; they are $40.4M, $7.4M above. Over FY2020–FY2025 outlays ran $1.6M below the baseline path in total (the end point and the path point different ways because earlier years ran the other way). Operating spending for some years is affected by changes in what the filing includes (see the data notes).
- The fastest-growing spending area was human services: $0.7M in FY2019 to $1.9M in FY2025 (172.5%, against a 28.2% baseline; at the baseline it would be $0.9M).
- Public safety spending grew 78.5%, above the baseline, and is 39.4% of operating spending in FY2025 (see the data notes: the filing's public safety figures are not consistent across years).
- Federal grant revenue went from $0.2M in FY2019 to $3.3M in FY2025, the highest in the period. Property tax revenue over the same years went from $7.3M to $11.7M.
- Court-related fell $6.5M in FY2019 while public safety rose by a nearly identical amount; the county could confirm whether items were recategorized.
- Among the 65 Florida counties with FY2024 property tax figures, Madison ranks #38 on property tax revenue per resident ($624; statewide median $666) and #8 on growth above the baseline since FY2019 (a data note on this page affects the years compared).
Questions this raises
Questions a county official could answer. The records show the change; they do not show the reason.
- What drove human services spending from $0.7M to $1.9M between FY2019 and FY2025?
- Was the FY2019 change in court-related a recategorization?
- What drove general government spending from $8.5M to $11.7M in FY2025? The change coincided with federal grant revenue going from $0.8M to $3.3M.
- What drove economic environment spending from $0.3M to $2.2M in FY2023? The change coincided with federal grant revenue going from $1.3M to $2.7M.
- What drove transportation spending from $2.5M to $4.4M in FY2024?
What public records say
For the largest changes on this page, a bounded search of the county's own documents and named news outlets.
No public explanation was located for the property tax revenue change since FY2019.
Sources and method
- Madison County revenues by account code and fund type, FY2006–FY2025 — Florida EDR, compiled from the county's Annual Financial Reports to the Department of Financial Services (s. 218.32, F.S.)
- Madison County expenditures by account code and fund type, FY2005–FY2025 — Florida EDR, same source
- Florida EDR — County Government Revenues and Expenditures (all counties)
- CPI-U, All Items, South region (BLS series CUUR0300SA0), via FRED
- Florida Department of Revenue — County and Municipal Property Tax Data (county profiles, 2017–2025 tax rolls)
Figures are actual revenues and expenditures as reported by the county in its Annual Financial Report to the State of Florida, not adopted budgets, and this page is not an audit. Fiscal years run October 1 to September 30; "FY2025" is the year ended September 30, 2025. Governmental funds are the general, special revenue, debt service, capital projects and permanent funds; enterprise, internal service, fiduciary and component-unit columns are excluded. "Revenue" excludes transfers in, debt proceeds and special items (accounts 37x–39x). "Operating spending" is spending by function in the general, special revenue and permanent funds, excluding "other uses" (transfers out, escrow payments). "County outlays" is all governmental-fund spending including transfers out, minus transfers received from other governmental funds and minus payments to refunded-bond escrow. Debt-service payments are account 517. Population is the countywide estimate published with each year's filing. The filings' population estimates were rebased to the 2020 Census beginning with FY2021, so the FY2020-to-FY2021 step in the filings mixes real change with the rebase. For this page the real change that year is taken as the median of the county's other yearly changes in the filings over FY2016–FY2025 (+0.50%), and estimates for FY2020 and earlier are rescaled by −4.9% so that is the step; the rebase itself is not counted as growth or decline. The baseline grows the FY2019 figure by population and by CPI-U South (fiscal-year average). Per-resident figures divide by that year's population. Millage rates and taxable values are the County Commission's countywide operating figures from the Department of Revenue's annual county profiles, extracted from the published PDFs and checked for internal consistency (the valuation arithmetic and the rate labels; taxable value × rate is also compared with the reported county levy, which can legitimately exceed the operating levy where a county levies MSTUs or voted debt, so that comparison decides only whether the reported levy figures are quoted). A roll whose valuation or rate figures are inconsistent is left out with a note, and rates are not compared across a year in which the operating rate changed by 15% or more while the county's reported property tax revenue moved 20 or more points differently from the operating levy. The "baseline rate" is the FY2019 operating levy grown by population and inflation, divided by the year's taxable value, and the homeowner figures apply the rates to fixed taxable values as an illustration, not a bill. Some counties report a constitutional officer's budget as a transfer rather than as spending by function, and some change what their filing includes from year to year; where that visibly affects a figure, a data note says so. Prepared by Beachside Automation with software-assisted analysis and human review; this page describes what the public records show and makes no policy recommendation.