Hollywood adopts $949 million FY2026 budget, lowers total millage to 7.9606 mills

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The City Commission on Sept. 25 adopted a $949,000,000 fiscal year 2026 budget that lowers the city’s total millage to 7.9606 mills, approves roughly $95 million in capital projects and authorizes 40 new positions across city departments.

City Manager (name not specified in the transcript) opened the second public budget hearing and said the proposed budget “for the second year in a row” recommends a reduction in the operating millage and a debt-service decrease that together bring the city’s total millage below 8 mills for the first time in about 14 years. Assistant City Manager Adam Reichback outlined the numbers in more detail and noted the total city funds represent an 11.9% increase from FY2025.

The budget vote followed public notice and a second hearing required by Florida law. The commission voted unanimously to set the operating millage at 7.4293 mills (a decrease of 0.0186 mills from the 2025 operating millage), producing a total millage of 7.9606 mills after reductions in three debt-service millage rates. Reichback said the General Fund is approximately $416,000,000 — about 44% of the total budget — and that the overall budget growth reflects taxable-value growth and other non-property tax revenue sources.

The FY2026 budget document submitted to the commission shows three principal priorities for the new resources: enhancing public safety, strengthening city services and preparing for the future. The capital improvement plan totals about $95,000,000 and focuses primarily on water and sewer and stormwater projects tied to the city’s stormwater master plan, with additional allocations for general capital outlay, equipment replacement, gas tax and sanitation projects.

Reichback and the city manager said the budget is structurally balanced — meaning ongoing revenues are intended to meet ongoing expenses — and highlighted that 40 new authorized positions are included for FY2026. New hires and reclassifications listed in the presentation include positions for public utilities (treatment-plant mechanics, accountants, project managers), public works (fleet mechanic, recycling coordinator), public safety (three new fire-prevention officers and other firefighter positions previously funded by a SAFER grant that the city is absorbing), police technology intelligence specialists, development-services plan reviewers and inspectors, and new IT, code compliance and communications roles. The city manager said the total full-time-equivalent headcount is approximately where the city was 15 years ago and described the additions as restoring capacity lost during earlier periods of fiscal urgency.

Commissioners who spoke during the hearing emphasized customer service, performance measurement and process improvements. Several commissioners and the city manager said the administration is pursuing an enterprise asset/property management system and a stronger compliance and process-improvement function to manage the growing asset base and to measure service outcomes.

Formal actions taken at the meeting included unanimous approval of the millage-setting resolution, adoption of the FY2026 operating budget, adoption of the FY2026–FY2030 capital improvement plan, authorization of the new positions for FY2026 and the commission’s concurrence with a separate Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) budget adopted by the CRA board.

The commission's votes on the budget package were unanimous. The city manager and Assistant City Manager promoted the city’s performance-measurement systems and said budget decisions were informed by multi-department review and data on trends and service demands.

Less-critical items noted in the presentation included continued investments in body-worn cameras, school-zone speed enforcement, CCTV and license-plate reader expansion, outfitting a new police headquarters (PDHQ), enterprise vehicle-replacement program funding and additional cybersecurity resources. The city’s Budget Office team was acknowledged by name at the meeting for its work producing the budget documents.

Mayor Levy closed the meeting following recognition of the budget staff and a staff departure announcement.