School board passes $2.9 billion budget
The Lee County School Board approved a $2.9 billion budget during its final budget hearing Tuesday.
The board approved the required local effort millage rate of 3.071, $498,608,981 to be raised; .0748 basic discretionary millage with $121,445,626 to be raised; and a capital outlay millage of 1.500 to raise $243,540,694.
The total millage rate of 5.319 — a 1.43% increase over the rollback rate of 5.2441 mills — will raise $863,595,301 from property taxes.
One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property valuation.
The required local effort mills is 3.038 mills for the 2025-2026 school year, a .033 increase. Budget Director Kelly Letcher said this is a required levy to participate in the Florida Education Finance Program.
She used an example.
A taxpayer with a $100,000 home value last year, and a new value of $105,390 this year, would see a bill of $560.57, a difference of $31.97.
For taxpayers with Save Our Home, taxable value can not go up more than 3%. So, for a $100,00 home value, the new value would be $103,000. At the 5.319 tax rate, the bill is $414.88, an $18.43 increase.
The board also approved the final budget of $2,919,795,073. The budget is broken down into five funds – General Operating of $1,281,739,638; Special Revenue Budget of $131,705,825; Debt Service Budget of $99,018,536; Capital Outlay Budget of $1,181,726,237 and Internal Service Budget of $225,604,837.
The overall budget is a decrease of $114,667,599 from the previous year’s budget of $3,034,462,672.
Board member Melisa Giovanneli said meaningful cost savings were found while supporting all of the district’s students and staff.
“We had some cutbacks, right sizing,” Board member Bill Ribble said. “The end result will show in how we spend our money in 2026. I thought we did a great job in putting out to the community, all of these numbers. A great job in being transparent and communicating.”
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