Lake Wales keeps millage at 8.047% while staff presents balanced FY '26-'27 budget

City finance staff told the commission they recommend holding the millage at the prior year's rate, 8.047, and presented the city's proposed balanced budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

"The millage rate has been held at what it was in the prior year, which is the 8.047," the finance director said during the work session. Staff explained that staying at the current rate instead of moving to the rollback rate preserves roughly $600,000 in revenue for city priorities. The director said staff factored in new revenue sources including expanded property tax roll from added parcels, a recent $700,000 federal award to the police department, and additional enforcement and camera program revenue.

Commissioners pressed staff on why expenditures rose while the millage was held. The finance director said the city's overall expenditures increased about 16.9% over the prior year, but pointed to multi-year loans, new and rising nonproperty revenues and one-time funding needs that allowed the budget to balance at the current millage. "We balance the budget at the current millage rate just to get the projects and the priorities completed for this upcoming year that everyone wanted to get completed," the finance director said.

Staff also warned of a contingency tied to a November ballot measure: "That will be about a $4,200,000 drop in revenue, $2,000,000 in the general fund and about $2,200,000 in the CRA fund," the finance director said as an illustrative scenario for commission consideration. City leaders said they planned to monitor the ballot outcome and revisit options, including a future rollback, depending on how revenues materialize.

Next steps: staff said the budget and millage remain scheduled for final reading and formal action at a future meeting, and they will provide the commission the detailed backup numbers requested by members.