Cape Coral council hears wide-ranging FY2026 budget requests as staff warns revenues have pulled back

CAPE CORAL — City staff told the Cape Coral City Council at a June 5 budget workshop that the city’s FY2026 base budget has been balanced but that recent taxable‑value figures show a pullback in growth and leave little room for new recurring costs.

The city manager and finance staff presented a proposed general‑fund operating budget of $264,000,339 and described $66.47 million in additional program requests affecting the general fund (about $102.3 million across all funds). Stantec, the city’s consultant, showed five‑year “status‑quo” scenarios that forecast the city slipping below policy reserve levels without additional revenues or expenditure changes.

Why it matters: Cape Coral relies heavily on ad valorem (property) revenue and experienced reduced taxable values in the most recent June 1 update. With roughly 60% of general‑fund revenue coming from property taxes, staff said the city faces a short window to decide whether to accept reduced services, reallocate spending, or pursue new revenue measures that would affect residents’ bills.

Key facts and immediate choices - City staff presented a FY2026 proposed budget that preserves the current general‑fund millage at 5.2188 mills, but also laid out the revenue effects of alternate levers: raising the millage (each 1 mill ≈ $3.02 million to the general fund at current values), increasing the fire service assessment (FSA) recovery percentage (each 5% ≈ $3.89 million), or increasing the public‑service tax (PST) from 7% toward the 10% cap (each 1% ≈ $2 million). - The administration said it has already made approximately $11 million in adjustments to achieve a structurally balanced FY2026 base budget; staff described those cuts as pauses to capital, sidewalk and median beautification, certain parks upgrades and one‑time projects…