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County manager presents FY 2025-26 recommended budget; board schedules work session and narrows CIP guidance
Summary
Lee County Manager Lisa Minter delivered the fiscal year 2025-26 recommended budget on June 2, proposing a $119.39 million budget that holds the property tax rate at 65', funds a 2.8% COLA and selects 17 of 28 requested new positions while asking commissioners to weigh operating costs for new county facilities.
County Manager Lisa Minter presented the recommended fiscal year 2025-26 budget to the Lee County Board of Commissioners on June 2, asking the board to maintain the existing 65-cent property tax rate while funding a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment, selected position additions, and capital requests.
Minter said the recommended budget reflects a directive to prepare a budget with a zero-cent property-tax change. The manager summarized revenue assumptions (a projected 5.79% increase in property tax revenue driven by a 5.53% increase in the tax base and a modest sales-tax growth assumption of 1%) and $119,389,086 in projected expenditures, a 5.72% increase over the prior year. She told commissioners the recommended budget includes 17 of 28 newly requested positions and a mix of staggered hires for facilities coming online (notably the Lee County Athletic Park and a new main library). The recommended package includes a 3.9% current-expense increase for Lee County Schools and full funding of the school capital request as recommended in the book.
Minter noted operating-cost effects tied to new facilities, including utility and staffing needs at the athletic park and new library, and added ongoing hazardous-waste monitoring costs at the Morse Center that the county must absorb into operating budgets. She also reported an increase in the county's collection rate and itemized personnel assumptions (COLA, pay-plan adjustments, retirement rate increases and health insurance changes).
Commissioners discussed staff priorities and whether to invite department leaders to the board's scheduled budget work session. The board voted to move the scheduled work session on Monday, June 9 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to accommodate members and set an intent to hear the sheriff about staffing and to discuss budget priorities among the board. Commissioners also adopted guidance that new capital-improvement (CIP) proposals must include three-year operating-cost projections in the CIP instructions.
Minter said adopting the recommended budget would allow the county to meet obligations without a tax-rate increase this year but warned that reducing debt-service allocations could delay planned projects and that future tax-rate choices would affect capital and operating capacity. The board did not adopt the budget at the June 2 meeting; the public hearing on the budget remains scheduled for June 16.
