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Leesburg staff present draft FY27 budget: $2.9M General Fund increase, proposed rollback rate of 3.3783
Summary
City staff told the commission the FY27 draft budget raises General Fund revenue by $2.9 million, holds the electric transfer at $1.6 million, proposes a rollback rate of 3.3783, and budgets targeted raises and added positions while freezing nine police posts to balance costs.
City staff presented a draft fiscal year 2027 budget on July 7 that increases the General Fund by $2,900,000 and proposes a rollback millage rate of 3.3783.
Randy, a city staff presenter, opened the workshop and told commissioners, “The budget, the general fund is up 2,900,000.” He said higher interest earnings and increased fines and forfeitures tied to school-zone cameras account for a significant portion of the gain. Randy also said the draft holds the electric-to-general-fund transfer at $1,600,000 for FY27 and cautioned that raising that transfer could require an electric-rate change because of pressures on the utility fund.
Why it matters: the rollback rate, Randy said, is designed to bring in roughly the same revenue while reducing the millage rate compared with maintaining the current rate; under the draft proposal the rollback rate is 3.3783 versus the current 3.4752. Randy showed homeowner examples to illustrate the impact across a range of assessed values.
The draft also allocates employee compensation increases: an 8% salary adjustment is included for police and firefighters (the firefighter figure is subject to ongoing bargaining), a 4% increase for other city employees, and an increase of the city’s base 401(a) contribution from 5% to 8% along with a 3% matching program. Randy said these changes are expected to increase the city’s contribution to health insurance by about 29%.
Staff emphasized constrained revenue growth: in the presentation Randy compared June 1 taxable values and noted Leesburg’s taxable-value growth (about 4.75% in the presenter’s chart) lagged an average of 9.39% among peer cities, limiting ad valorem revenue upside. He also flagged General Fund cash flow as cyclical—“you can see it looks like we have a lot of cash, but we constantly are getting it in… we pay the debt,” he said—so not all cash above reserves is available for new capital projects.
What’s next: staff said the budget and supporting documents are posted on the city’s website and that the commission will receive further information at a July 13 meeting; Thursday’s workshop will cover special revenues, debt service, capital projects and enterprise funds.
The commission did not take a formal vote on the overall draft at the July 7 workshop.
