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At their fourth and final joint budget workshop with the Budget Review Committee, members of the Cape Coral City Council leaned toward either keeping the city’s property tax rate the same or reducing it just slightly.

City Manager Rob Hernandez said he would craft a tentative final budget with a rate at 6.25 mills that would include the ability to fund the much discusses additional six firefighters requested by Fire Chief Ryan Lamb.

He said he would explain the methodology Council next week during the first of two budget hearings.

The current city millage rate is 6.375 mills.

One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property valuation. Because the city has seen an overall increase in property valuation of 10.88 percent, leaving the millage rate at the same level would result in the city receiving approximately $10.9 million more in property tax revenue and result in a bump in taxes on all properties whose value went up since the last valuation roll. The rollback rate is the rate at which the property tax would remain the same on developed properties year over year. Since Cape Coral also saw a great deal of new construction, the city still would receive $4.2 million more in increased property tax revenue at the rollback rate.

City staff presented Council with three other alternatives: the rollback rate of 5.9962 mills, a midpoint rate of 6.1856 or a rounder number, like 6.25.

The BRC recommended the rollback rate, though it wasn’t a unanimous consensus. Council did not express an interest in cutting the rate – and so the budget – that low, especially when members of the elected board said there are so many things Council would like to do.

Mayor John Gunter did lots of homework in an effort to convince the other members of Council to consider the midpoint rate, suggesting the use of impact fees and other assigned and unassigned funds to pay for some items, such as additional firefighters and a new fire boat.

He also proposed cutting the Jaycee Park shoreline project $1.4 million and the replacement of the soccer field at Pelican Park, as well as cutting $500,000 from the total budgeted for sidewalks and the city’s travel and training budgets.

Adding more firefighters was something Council could get behind, just not the midpoint rate.

Only Councilmember Jennifer Nelson was on board with the mayor about going halfway, but even they seemed to get more comfortable regarding the 6.25 rate.

Councilmember Gloria Tate said that while she appreciated the work the mayor had done, she wanted to keep the millage the same and didn’t want to micromanage City Manager Rob Hernandez.

“Micromanaging is not my job and have seen that come and go and it’s not a pretty picture,” Tate said. “I keep hearing we’re going to move it (projects) to next year. I don’t know about next year because we don’t know what property values are going to do.”

Further, Tate worried that the city would stop doing what it’s been known for, bringing amenities to residents, particularly parks.

“We have spoken so much about parks and that’s what people talk about, parks,” Tate said. “I don’t know if I want to take those parts out. We’re saving a few dollars, but are we jeopardizing what we’re known for? We want to get back to the glory days, but we can’t do that if we cut pennies.”

Council members Tom Hayden and Dan Sheppard agreed with keeping the rates the same, while council members Robert Welsh and Jessica Cosden were stuck between the current rate and going down to 6.25.

Newly appointed Councilmember Keith Long, attending his first full meeting, said he was in favor of the 6.25 rate, though he said he considered keeping it the same earlier on.

Gunter said he hoped Hernandez would keep in mind some of the cuts those on Council seemed to accept, as well as the fire personnel, the police dock and the mooring field proposed for Bimini Basin.

The city’s total budget, all funds, is nearly $1 billion. The budget submitted by City Manager Rob Hernandez proposes a $978,861,235 overall budget for fiscal year 2022, with $303,596,335 budgeted to the General Fund, which pays for city operations. It’s an almost $50 million increase over this current fiscal year.

The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

The first public hearing for the budget will be Thursday, Sept. 9, at 5:05 p.m. in council chambers, where the not-to-exceed millage will be set as will the budget.

The second public hearing will be Thursday, Sept. 23, at 5:05 p.m. in council chambers, where the millage and budget will be voted on.

The hearings are open to the public. City Hall is at 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.