City finance director reports favorable midyear position, outlines FY2025 revenue scenarios

Chris Tenney, director of financial services, told the City Council at its workshop that the city is in a “solid” fiscal position as it finishes the current year and prepares a recommended budget for FY2025. “General fund revenue is $143,800,000,” Tenney said, and he reported an unassigned general-fund reserve balance of $28,000,000 as of Sept. 30, 2023.

Tenney said overall revenue collections through the reporting period were roughly in line with expectations, with key drivers including ad valorem tax growth and stronger-than-expected business tax and permit receipts. He gave council a set of millage-rate scenarios for 2025 and said the staff midpoint millage of 6.5255 would produce roughly $6.6 million more in ad valorem revenue than the adopted 2024 budget. Tenney cautioned the figures are projections and the final adopted budget will not be set until the end of September.

Council members pressed staff on several revenue streams, including an unresolved reconciliation with FPL franchise-fee accounts and fluctuations in county-shared fuel taxes. The city manager and staff described ongoing efforts to reconcile coding and billing with FPL for an estimated 1,200 accounts that may not have been charged the franchise fee; staff said they intend to document account open dates to evaluate whether retroactive collection is feasible.

The council did not take final budget action at the workshop; staff said the material presented would form the basis of the recommended FY2025 budget and that formal budget adoption remains scheduled for late September.