City Manager (unnamed) opened Night 1 of the City of DeLand's fiscal year 2025-26 budget workshops with a broad overview of the proposed operating plan and risks.

The manager told the commission the proposed total budget is about $133,000,000 with roughly a 1.39% increase over the current year. He said the commission's earlier strategic-priorities exercise identified maintaining public safety as the highest-ranked priority and said the budget reflects that focus.

Staff warned the commission that state actions could reshape local revenue. The manager reviewed a recent legislative development: the governor's veto of a proposed state study on property-tax relief and the likelihood the issue will return during the next legislative session. He urged caution in relying on property tax increases because state policy changes could reduce that revenue stream.

On personnel and benefits, staff proposed a 3% merit pool for employees and listed specific personnel requests and contingencies: three firefighters and six police officers are included as needs, but the budget assumes seeking federal grants (COPS for police and SAFER for fire) to fund positions; the budget includes the required local matches. Staff noted a $689,570 set-aside for police recruitment and retention efforts and described nearly $800,000 of additional retirement contributions due to actuarial losses.

Staff described one-time and recurring capital asks across departments and said the city has substantial new taxable value since 2020, including about $185,000,000 in new growth and annexation. At the same time, they said state-shared revenue projections are uncertain and warned that preliminary numbers released in June may shift when July figures arrive.

The manager said staff proposes keeping the millage at the current 6.2841 rate but noted that staying at that rate is still an advertised tax increase equal to 4.11% over the rollback rate. He outlined how small changes in tenths of a mill would translate into required budget savings and emphasized the unequal distribution of tax burden across property classes, calling out that about 42% of the City of DeLand's property value is exempt from taxation.

Commission discussion during the session focused on balancing public safety investments with revenue risk, use of grants to offset hiring costs, pension and health-insurance pressures, and the timing of state revenue estimates.

Staff said they will present department-level budgets and follow-up detail during the remainder of the workshop series.