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Boca Raton previews balanced FY 2025–26 budget with slight millage cut and $282M in next‑year CIP
Summary
Finance staff presented a balanced FY 2025–26 budget that trims $2 million in expenditures while lowering the total millage rate slightly to 3.6649; the proposal funds 15 new citywide positions, several strategic CIP projects including a City Services Building and transit‑oriented downtown redevelopment, and carries no planned use of general fund balance.
City finance staff presented a preview of the fiscal year 2025–26 budget at the Boca Raton City Council workshop on July 14, calling the draft balanced and noting a modest millage rate decrease.
"The budget that you'll see here that's being submitted, it's a balanced budget," Jim Zervis, the city’s chief financial officer and deputy city manager, told the council. He said the draft includes a total millage of 3.6649, down from 3.6734, and that staff is proposing no use of general fund balance this year (compared with $14.6 million used in the prior year).
Zervis said assessed valuation rose 7.51%, pushing Boca Raton past $40 billion in total assessed value and generating roughly $15 million of additional ad valorem tax revenue in the draft. Staff also outlined a roughly $2 million reduction in total operating expenditures after a line‑by‑line trimming exercise.
The draft includes about 15 new positions citywide—three in the general fund—including a Planner II to monitor Live Local affordability covenants, a recreation superintendent, an IT development manager to support AI initiatives, and a traffic infraction enforcement program (speed cameras in school zones). The draft also adds CRA‑funded positions including an additional downtown police officer and a cultural arts administrator.
Capital investments were a major focus: staff presented a five‑year CIP totaling about $1.3 billion, with $282 million planned for the coming fiscal year. Highlighted projects include a City Services Building (budgeted at $26 million for purchase and improvements), transit‑oriented downtown redevelopment (CRA funded, $24 million), a municipal fleet garage, wastewater upgrades, and engineering/design funding for a police department headquarters project.
Councilmembers asked for more detail about indirect cost allocation and activity‑based costing; staff said it completed an update to its cost allocation methodology and will use that work to support future user‑fee updates and finer activity‑level budgeting.
Next steps: staff will present the tentative budget, user fee schedule and CIP in September and the council will take up the formal budget adoption schedule and hearings ahead of the September 30 deadline.
