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Longwood officials identify a multi-front strategy after budget model shows structural shortfall
Summary
City staff told commissioners a new interactive budget model projects a persistent general-fund shortfall and presented options including a limited millage increase, targeted fee adjustments, a possible fire assessment and water/sewer rate changes to fund capital needs.
City of Longwood officials told the commission on April 8 that the city faces a persistent general-fund shortfall and will need a mix of revenue and spending changes to balance future budgets.
"For 24‑25, our ending fund balance number will be approximately $5,100,000 with an operating reserve percentage of 18%," Finance Director Dustin Wilbrier said, and then reported a projected general‑fund deficit of $613,000 for fiscal year 25‑26 and a continuing gap under current assumptions for 26‑27. Wilbrier said revenue assumptions in the model use 3% growth for non‑property revenues, a 5% rise in property values and a 96% tax‑collection budgeting assumption.
The city manager framed the session as a working workshop rather than a decision meeting, telling commissioners the aim was "to provide a clear, more comprehensive view of the city's finances" and to prepare for policy choices to come. Commissioners pressed staff for a longer‑term plan after seeing model outputs that combine general fund and enterprise fund projects and therefore show much larger all‑fund deficits once capital projects are included.
Staff noted a key one‑time effect in recent years: a roughly $4.5 million ARPA transfer that inflates historical balances and complicates trend comparisons. "That ARPA transfer was done last year. So just dismiss it," Wilbrier said while explaining graphical anomalies in the presentation.
Commissioners and staff discussed a range of responses to the shortfall. Staff emphasized that personnel remains the largest driver of expense growth and warned that continuing to defer capital investment (for police cars, IT equipment and rescue vehicles) creates future cost pressure. The city manager told the commission that some vacancies have been left unfunded as one cost‑saving step and that staff would continue to evaluate service levels.
Next steps: staff will refine scenarios and hold more workshops (a tentative June session was discussed) to produce definitive numbers for the July budget process and the formal August vote.
