City manager: Infrastructure projects large part of budget increase
The city of Cape Coral will have spent a billion in infrastructure improvements over the course of two years, the city manager told City Council Wednesday morning.
City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said the fiscal year 2025 budget was the city’s first ever billion-dollar budget.
“Just a few years ago our city’s operating budget eclipsed a billion dollars,” he said.
Last year’s budget jumped to $1.45 billion.
“The reason it jumped to $1.45 billion was because of the preceding campaign and all the public information documents – all the surveys that we obtained, all of the input from the community was we needed to spend more on infrastructure,” Ilczyszyn said.
In this year’s operating budget there was a big outcry in the community of how the city’s budget jumped by 40-50% in one year. The budget went from just over $1 billion to $1.45 billion.
Ilczyszyn laid it out during Wednesday’s workshop: In last year’s budget there was $284.6 million budgeted for the North 3 UEP, $56.1 million budgeted for the North Water Plant Expansion, $53 million for the Southwest Water Rec Facility, $14.8 million for the North 3 Advanced Drainage System, and $13 million for Everest Headworks.
“This year alone we are spending over $400 million in infrastructure,” Ilczyszyn said. “That is how your budget goes from $1 billion to $1.45 billion.”
He said they understand the concerns and keeping up with growth and they budget appropriately to make sure they are keeping pace with the growth curve.
This year’s proposed budget is $1.51 billion, which contains a $400 million Northwest Water Rec Facility – a brand-new facility to keep up with growth in the North Cape, $37 million for North 3 treatment and transmission lines, $16 million for Everest Headworks for treatment of raw sewage and another $15.5 for the North well field expansion to tie into the North RO Plant.
He said that is $468 million in infrastructure this year.
“Next year when we don’t have those projects and we go back to a billion-dollar budget we are going to have a 30% reduction, but that is because we are not going to have those massive infrastructure projects budgeted. Not because we don’t need them, just because they are not planned and budgeted,” Ilczyszyn said.
“As we sit here today, plan for a north of 30% decrease in our budget next year, but for the fact we are accomplishing a billion in infrastructure improvements for this year and next year.”
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