Jacksonville Beach adopts 3.9947 millage rate and $248 million operating budget

Jacksonville Beach — The City Council on Sept. 15 adopted a millage rate of 3.9947 mills and approved an operating budget of $248,040,185 for fiscal year 2025–26 following the second of two required public hearings. The council passed the millage resolution (Resolution No. 21 96‑2025) unanimously and approved the operating budget (Resolution No. 21 97‑2025) by roll call vote.

The millage of 3.9947 mills is 4.75% above the calculated rollback rate of 3.8136 mills and has “remained unchanged since 02/2018,” City CFO Ashley Gossett told council. Gossett said the median single‑family homeowner can expect to pay $5,226 in the coming year, of which $1,090 is the portion that will go to Jacksonville Beach as shown in budget charts presented to the council.

Gossett outlined drivers of the $248 million budget: additions to personnel to meet service levels, a roughly $900,000 increase in required pension contributions, and an about $400,000 increase in city health, life and dental costs. She said payroll was prepared using available information during contract negotiations and a pay study; any changes from the contract approval or a subsequent pay plan will be disclosed in later agenda items and are not automatically added to payroll by adopting the budget.

Council discussion focused on benefits and reserve use. Council member Sutton asked for a breakdown of benefit increases; Gossett said health insurance was budgeted at an approximate $192,000 increase (about 5%) based on the data available when the budget was prepared, and the city budgeted about $213,000 for workers’ compensation to reflect premium increases and fund reserve levels. Council member Waters noted that revenues in FY 2020 were about $170 million and expenditures about $164 million; Gossett said this year’s roughly $25 million increase in expenditures includes about $14.5 million in capital projects that are rebudgets from 2025 and therefore already held in reserve.

Gossett said the city budgets on a cash basis and sometimes appropriately spends more than projected revenues in a single year to pay‑go capital projects; she cautioned that reserves are finite and a structural deficit cannot be repeatedly budgeted.

The operating budget vote: Council members Golding, Horn, Jansen, Sutton and Mayor Hoffman voted yes; Council member Wouters voted no. The millage vote was unanimous. Gossett and mayoral staff said the budget documents and the presentation would be made available to the public online.

Ending: The council closed the public hearing, adopted the resolutions, and adjourned the special meeting to reconvene at 6 p.m. for the regular council meeting.