BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners held a work meeting on July 15 to hold preliminary discussions about the upcoming 2025-26 budget.
According to the numbers presented at the meeting, total city revenues are projected to be $5,652,680 for the 2025-26 fiscal year, with expenditures projected at $5,045,506.
“A formal budget will be put together and there will be two public hearings (in September) on that,” Mayor John Chappie said. “Today is a preliminary discussion. This is just making sure everybody has an opportunity to answer questions.”
There is no planned increase in property taxes.
“The decision was made that we would not increase property taxes,” Bradenton Beach Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby said. “There was discussion about going to the rollback rate. We decided that by implementing the fees that we’ve been discussing over the last couple years, that this was the year we were going to do it. That happens to coincide with what happened with the hurricanes.”
Cosby said the city has seen an 11% reduction in property values due to the hurricanes.
“We have been discussing raising certain fees to bring them more in line with what the other cities are doing and you’re seeing that happen now,” Bradenton Beach Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby said. “We had toyed with raising the property tax. I personally walked the neighborhoods after the storm and people need more time to get situated. I think this is just the right thing to do.”
Cosby said that some city expenditures have been put on hold.
“We made some decisions not to do some capital improvement projects,” Cosby said. “New vehicles were going to be purchased and we talked about adding some personnel in the planning and police department and we’re going to put those on hold. As we’re going through this cycle with FEMA, we aren’t 100% sure what projects are going to fly and what percentage they’re going to get through the system.”
Cosby said that the city received $1.1 million in FEMA funding through the state to offset storm-related costs after storm debris removal was completed.
“Half of the projects were in the CRC (FEMA Consolidated Resource Center), which is the final approval to be funded,” Cosby said. “Then we will be getting 100% of those costs back. We decided to lay low this year because we are still going to responsible for 12.5% of our total damage from the hurricanes.”
Cosby said the city has requested its consultant to apply for a hardship through FEMA.
“The city is too small to incur the types of costs we’re having to incur due to the hurricanes,” he said. “Next year once we see where we’re at with FEMA and if we can get some assistance from FEMA to cover some of our losses, this budget could look a lot different next year.”
Millage rate and reserves
“The budget is built with not changing the millage of 2.3329,” City Treasurer Shayne Thompson said. “It functions as it is, it’s a moving target, so this is not the absolute be-all end-all number, but the goal was put some healthy amount back in reserves that were taken this year from the storm. We’re looking at putting back close to $320,000 into reserves in the coming year, so keeping the millage the same accomplishes that goal.”
“If you’re a coastal community, you should have 35% in reserves,” Cosby said. “In some of the budget years when there was money left over, instead of putting it back into the general fund, we put it back in uncommitted reserve. That was by far, one of the smartest things we have done as a city, because we’ve been able to weather this event, with two back-to-back category three hurricanes within 10 days.”
In discussing the millage rate, Commissioner Ralph Cole said that Bradenton Beach should ask Manatee County to contribute to policing in the city.
“We set our millage rate, the county sets their millage rate, and because they set their millage rate high, it puts the burden on us,” Cole said. “We need more money from the county for policing out here with all the people that are coming. Between the two entities we need to figure out something without raising the taxes on people that live here. We need to put more of our tax dollars where they come from.”
City employees will be receiving a 5% salary increase with no change in benefits.
“Last year the cost of living was set at 2.5% and we all got together and we decided 2.5% for a raise would put us at 5% and that is a nice increase for all the employees,” City Clerk Terri Sanclemente said. “I know it’s a little less than last year but it’s still a good raise.”
The city commission approved the following proposed expenditures:
- Administration $868,905
- Commission $188,157
- Police $2,131,795
- Emergency operations $95,400
- Code enforcement $74,691
- Planning $527,618
- CRS $70,883
- Pier $155,770
- Streets and roads $515,251
- Stormwater $242,026
- Facilities $144,010
- Sanitation $2,500
- Capital projects, reserves $28,500.
