Budget workshops planned for July 28 and 29
Interim Sarasota City Manager Dave Bullock is recommending what he calls “a modest increase in millage” for the city’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget, to make up for funds the city had to spend in its recovery from the 2024 storm season.
That rate would rise from 3 mills to 3.2730 mills, if the City Commission accepts his recommendation.
One mill represents $1,000 of the value of a piece of property. Thus, if the rate stays at 3 mills, the owner of a home valued at $300,000 who has no homestead exemption would pay $300 in property taxes on that residence.
Nonetheless, Bullock pointed out farther into a 444-page document — which city staff released prior to budget workshops next week — that the proposed Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget was prepared for the City Commission with an unchanged millage rate of 3.0000.
In a July 13 message included in the document, Bullock explained, “The three recent storms required a significant response effort from the City which came at a cost to our budget. When a disaster strikes, the City will always respond with all available resources. To pay for the unbudgeted needs caused by the storm, the City relied heavily on its reserves. Those reserves are maintained to be available for just such a need and they were adequate to cover the immediate costs of responding to the storms and beginning the repair work. While the City did receive some early reimbursement from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], the reserves were used to pay for most of the recovery work. As a result, reserves were drawn down to a level below the City’s adopted policy.”
He then pointed to the immediate need to begin rebuilding the reserves, noting, “We are projecting the ending fund balance (reserves) for FY 2024-25 will be approximately $18 million, less than 14% of the ratio of fund balance to operating expenses. We also estimate the storm related costs for FY 2024-25 will exceed $20 million.”
The city’s policy calls for the reserves to represent a balance between 17% and 25%, he wrote.
His proposed millage rate increase, Bullock continued, would raise the reserves to the 20% mark in the next fiscal year. The reserves would total slightly more than $21.6 million, he added, “which is close to what we have spent this fiscal year to respond to and begin repairs from the storms. If there are FEMA reimbursements in the coming years,” he added, “these proceeds can be added to reserves and allow a future commission to determine if this millage increase should remain.”
Further, Bullock wrote that he was proposing a budget for the next fiscal year that would total $2 million less than the current adopted budget. “[W]e have worked to keep service levels where they are today,” he noted, along with maintaining an operating budget that is “as flat as possible.”
Bullock added, “It is important that I point out to the City Commission and the public that maintaining current service levels city-wide are subject to economically sensitive revenues and increasing or decreasing assessed property values throughout the City that fund our various operations. Property tax values are expected to increase; however, property tax cap restrictions (i.e., Homestead exemption; Widows/Widowers Exemption; Historic Property Exemption; etc.) will limit revenues regardless of large increases in market value. Future shortfalls in revenue could occur such as a decline in investment returns which can impact the annual required pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) contributions.”
He also pointed out, “The budget does not include any new general fund positions.”
The General Fund is made up of property tax revenue and revenue from other sources, such as the city’s issuance of licenses and permits, proceeds from a Communication Services Tax, and a state revenue-sharing allocation, the budget document noted.
However, Bullock did write that five new full-time positions have been requested for departments or divisions that generate their own money or have special revenue funds.
Those are as follows:
- “1 position in the Building Services Fund — Plans Examiner.
- “1 position in the Water Revenue Fund — Application Support Administrator.
- “1 position in the Information Technology fund — Computer Support Specialist (Web Master).
- “2 positions in the Solid Waste Fund — Compliance Coordinator and Fleet Service Technician.”
Bullock also offered what he characterized as “one positive note”: The city property values rose by approximately 6%, as the Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s Office reported in a late-June filing with the state, to meet a July 1 deadline related to the Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices that will go out to property owners in August.
(The Sarasota News Leader calculated a property value increase of about 6.26%, comparing the late-June figure from Property Appraiser Bill Furst and his staff to the certified property value for the city in 2024. The late-June reports put the city’s property value at $19,486,149,429, while the certified 2024 value was $18,338,387,230.)
Bullock did note that the rise in value from 2024 to this year was lower than the city had experienced in each of the past four years.
In 2024, the July 1 property value for the city was up 9.8%, compared to the 2023 figure. It rose 13.3% in 2023.
Even with a lower increase in the property value this year, Bullock added, “Sarasota remains a highly desirable place to live and is recognized as one of the best communities in the country.”
At 9 a.m. on Monday, July 28, and Tuesday, July 29, the Sarasota City Commission will conduct its workshops on the proposed city budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1.
The sessions will be held in the Commission Chambers of City Hall, which stands at 1565 First St. in downtown Sarasota.
Then, at 5 p.m. on July 29, a special meeting has been scheduled for the commissioners to vote on the preliminary millage rates for the 2026 fiscal year.