ANNA MARIA – On Aug. 14, Mayor Mark Short presented city commissioners with an overview of the city’s operating expenses projected in the city’s proposed 2025-26 fiscal year budget.
The budget document shared with commissioners lists $6.8 million in total recurring operating expenses, compared to the $6.6 million listed for the 2024-25 fiscal year budget that ends on Sept. 30.
Elected last November, Short, a retired certified public accountant and accounting consultant, is preparing his first city budget. He said the projected 2025-26 operating expenses equate to a 2.95% increase.
“When you look at the recurring operations of the city – to keep the lights on, to keep the streets clean, to keep law enforcement, to do all of that – the budget is less than a 3% anticipated increase,” he said.
The projected recurring operating expenses include $2.09 million for employee wages and benefits, a slight increase from the $1.98 million listed for the current fiscal year. Short said employee wages and benefits combined are projected to increase by slightly more than 5%, with city employees receiving approximate 4% wage increases.
The projected 2025-26 operating expenses include $1.67 million for law enforcement services provided by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, an increase from the $1.52 million listed for current fiscal year.
The projected operating expenses include $1.19 million for contracted professional services – a significant increase from the $547,347 listed for the current fiscal year. Professional services include city attorney services, street sweeping services, stormwater system vacuuming services, vacation rental inspections and the city’s contracted and outsourced building department and building official services. Short said $335,000 of the anticipated professional services increase is attributed to building department services to be provided by Joe Payne Inc.
The proposed operating expenses include $105,000 for Internet Technology (IT) expenses, down from the $155,000 listed for the current fiscal year due to a switch in service providers.
The proposed expenses include $514,871 in anticipated “citywide” expenses that Short said are not attributed to a specific department or service.
“There will be no pier operating expenses this year, I hate to say, but that is a fact,” he said of the hurricane-damaged City Pier walkway to be reconstructed during the coming fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. Short anticipates the City Pier reconstruction project to be completed in October 2026.
The operating budget includes $885,000 in additional one-time expenses that include $332,000 for a coastal resiliency study that will help the city formulate a long-range stormwater and drainage plan. Short said the resiliency study is eligible for dollar-for-dollar matching grants.
The one-time expenses include $75,000 for a parking study, of which Short said, “You’re all here on the weekends and you know what this place looks like: the wild, wild west, and we need somebody to come in here and give us some advice on how to address that.”
The projected expenses include $103,000 for emergency road repairs still needed because of last year’s hurricanes and $150,000 to restore the city’s long-dormant emergency management department/program.
Short said the recurring and one-time operating expenses combined total $8.1 million.
On Aug. 28, Short will present city commissioners with the projected capital project expenditures for the coming fiscal year. The proposed budget will be presented for final city commission adoption during two public hearings in September.
