High Springs faces $723,000 FY26 shortfall; city manager lays out rate hikes, service cuts and property sales

City Manager Jeremy Marshall told the High Springs Commission at a budget workshop Aug. 21 that the city faces roughly a $723,000 shortfall for fiscal year 2026 driven by reduced county fire funding and higher sewer expenses.

Marshall said the city learned it would lose $188,000 of contract revenue from Alachua County Fire Rescue — "That's 51% of the contract that we get from the county" — and that sewer operations are strained after building a second plant, higher hauling costs for biosolids and added staff and utility costs. "To make the budget whole for fiscal year '26, we need to find $723 or $723,000, whether it's raising rates or cutting what we have," Marshall said.

The finance director, Diane Wilson, told commissioners the sewer enterprise fund has a negative cash position and that unrestricted net positions have been drawn down since the last audit. "It has a negative cash position and that means that the cash from the general fund is a placeholder for the — it's like an interfund loan for the sewer system and obviously that's not sustainable," Wilson said. She warned the city lacks reserves to back emergency borrowing.

Why it matters

Marshall and Wilson said enterprise funds (water, sewer, solid waste) have been repeatedly used to supplement the general fund. Marshall showed pie charts for sewer and transportation revenues that, he said, had large transfers out to cover general fund expenses: for example, a $310,000 transfer from sewer and an $1,200,000 historic balance in the local option gas tax that in many years was instead shifted to the general fund for non-transportation uses. "Approximately 60% of your [sewer] expense is out the door before you touch 1 drop of sewage," Marshall said, citing debt service and grinder-pump costs.

Key numbers and constraints

- Total gap to close for FY26: roughly…