Budget workshop set for Wednesday
Cape Coral City Council will be asked to provide decisions on proposed program modifications and funding options at a budget presentation Wednesday.
The presentation will include a look at three funding sources — the millage rate, the fire service assessment recapture rate and the city’s public service tax. Options are increase, decrease, or leave the rate the same.
The proposed millage rate is at the rolled-back rate of 5.1988 mills or $5.1988 per $1,000 of taxable assessed valuation. The fire service assessment is proposed at 81% recovery, and public service tax is proposed at 7%.
The General Fund operation budget the city manager developed for the fiscal year 2027 budget is $285,012,674 using the 5.1988 mills rolled-back rate as of July 1.
The roll back rate is the rate at which revenue from property taxes would remain flat.
Council will set the not-to-exceed millage rate at its July 22 meeting.
The FY27 budget deficit using the same millage rate is $1,541,751 using the first property appraiser certified taxable values.
Among the options to be presented to the council is to amend the budget including the city auditor proposed reductions of $204,672, which includes both personnel and operating.
Also to be discussed are department requests, or program modifications, currently not in the budget for next year as proposed.
Program modifications requests for police amount to $11,010,903, which includes $4,228,597 for personnel, $1,842,939 for operating and $4,939,367 for capital. These line items are funded through the general fund.
The fire program modification request has a general fund share of $1,905,626, and a fire service assessment share of $10,029,608. The modifications include $1,937,110 for personnel, $251,528 for operating and $7,840,970 for capital.
The presentations have funding alternatives including adjusting the millage rate from 5.1988 to 5.6053 mills, adjusting the fire services assessment from 81% to 97% of the cost of operations, and increasing the public service tax by 3%.
The presentation also includes a realignment reduction in detail, which would include expenditure cuts in areas including Public Works, Development Services, and Parks and Recreation.
The July budget workshop will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 15, in City Council chambers, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.
To reach , please email news@breezenewspapers.com