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City manager presents $247M FY2027 budget, warns state tax reform could cut revenues
Summary
City Manager Randy Knight presented a balanced $247 million FY2027 budget keeping Winter Park's 4.0923 millage rate steady while proposing modest utility rate increases and road resurfacing; he warned state property-tax reform could reduce local revenues by about $5.4 million phased in and $76 million over 10 years.
City Manager Randy Knight presented the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget on July 8, describing it as a largely maintenance-of-service plan that balances spending across priorities while preserving the city’s 4.0923 millage rate.
"It is a $247,000,000 all funds budget and a $94,600,000 general fund budget," Knight said, adding the proposal represents a continuation of service levels with limited expansion. He told commissioners that roughly 44% of general fund revenue comes from property taxes and that the growth in new money is primarily being consumed by public-safety costs and pension obligations.
Knight said the city is targeting road resurfacing—about eight lane miles in the proposed budget—and that the new money is being directed to public safety salary and pension increases. He outlined utility rate changes designed to avoid cutting planned services: a roughly 4–5% increase in the non-fuel component of electric rates (about an $8 monthly impact for the average customer), a proposed additional 2% on water and sewer (about $4 monthly), and the third year of a stormwater increase that together would amount to about $15 per month on an average bill. "Without these increases we'd have to cut about $2,600,000 out of the proposed spending," Knight said.
Knight also warned about recent state property-tax changes and described the fiscal risk to future budgets. He said a change to the rollback-rate calculation means adopting the same millage rate will now require a supermajority (four of five commissioners) and that the city estimates a phased-in $5.4 million reduction in property-tax revenue from the expanded homestead exemption, with a projected 10-year reduction of about $76 million if reform is adopted as envisioned. "The first hit happens in fiscal year 2028," he said.
Next steps: the commission will discuss the budget in a series of work sessions this month, adopt a tentative millage on July 22, accept public input in August, and hold final hearings in September.
