West Palm Beach adopts tentative FY2026 budget and keeps millage rate flat at 8.1308 mills

The West Palm Beach City Commission on Sept. 8 held a public hearing and unanimously adopted a tentative fiscal year 2026 budget and a tentative ad valorem millage rate that remains flat at 8.1308 mills.

Bridget Souffrant, the city’s chief financial officer, presented the proposed tentative general fund operating budget and related citywide figures. “Tonight, we bring you the final numbers for the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget,” Souffrant said, noting the tentative general fund operating budget is balanced at $283,563,050 and that the overall citywide balanced budget excluding the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and ECR is $780,541,591. She told the commission the city’s taxable value rose 9.4% to $25,400,000,000, and holding the millage flat would yield about $11.5 million in new tax revenue.

The nut of the commission’s discussion centered on how growth and baseline contractual obligations shape the ability to reduce the millage. City Administrator Johnson explained why city leadership recommended maintaining the current millage rather than pursuing another reduction: “If we did not have mission critical needs, our base increases in the budget [are] below what the revenue is. We could just take that and do a millage reduction. But…