City Manager Bill McDaniel and Chief Financial Officer Diane Reichard presented the City of Plant City City Commission with the proposed balanced budget, more than six months in the making, at a budget workshop this week for the upcoming fiscal year.
“The city is in great financial shape, we have responsible fiscal policies and fiscal management,” said City Manager Bill McDaniel. “We’ve had great success in our economic development endeavors and the combination of those factors leads us to the positive position we’re in today.”
With a $108,779,353 budget spread out in several different funds including General Fund, Water/Sewer, Solid Waste, Stormwater, Street, Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), Special Revenue and Other, the city is seeing a $12,383,370 (12.8 percent) increase over last fiscal year’s adopted budget. Tax revenue per capita (a measurement of how much tax the city receives per person, on average) is $732.26. Its expenditures per capita is $602.95. The city is running at a budget surplus of $129.31 per capita.
The increased budget is due in part to the increase in taxable value of property in the city. For fiscal year 2024, property tax values increased by $596,603,518, a 16.5 percent increase over fiscal year 2023. The greater the value, the more property taxes are collected, which are used to fund the government. The proposed millage rate, set at the July 24 City Commission meeting, is 5.7157. One mill is dedicated exclusively to street resurfacing and infrastructure projects.
Additional revenue streams for the city include permits and fees, intergovernmental revenues, fines and forfeitures, charges for services, miscellaneous revenue and other sources.
According to the budget report, the General Fund, which is the largest fund at 47 percent of the total budget, the city is proposing to allot $15,038,201 to the Plant City Police Department, $8,802,310 to Parks and Recreation, $8,361,343 to Plant City Fire Rescue, $4,374,116 to Development Services, $3,911,644 to Administration and $1,147,730 to Library.
According to the budget documents, the city’s core strategies used to determine the budget, include facilitating economic development, fostering community engagement, empowering outstanding customer service, engaging in effective communication and maximizing organizational effectiveness.
To achieve some of those strategies, nine new positions are being created, including a Parks Ranger, Tennis Facility Coordinator, Senior Planning Technician, three police officers, two community service officers and a refuse collector. These positions are needed due to expanding programs at McIntosh Preserve and the Tennis Center, a growing city population that needs additional police officers to serve and protect its citizens as well as garbage collection and to improve the permit application process.
The city also allocates funds to outside agencies. The budget proposes that the Plant City Economic Development Council (PCEDC) will receive $150,000, Plant City Chamber of Commerce will receive $65,000, Plant City Main Street will receive $50,000, the Economic Incentive QTI Program will receive $31,114, Railroad Museum Society will receive $25,000, Boys and Girls Club will receive $20,000 and Arts Council of Plant City will receive $10,000. Two thousand dollars is earmarked for Black Heritage Celebration, $2,000 will go to the Improvement League of Plant City for its MLK Festival and $2,000 will be spent to offset the costs of the city’s annual Christmas parade.
Additional proposed spending will be detailed by the Plant City Observer in the coming weeks.
Mayor Nate Kilton credited the partnerships the city has with organizations, such as the PCEDC for the economic drivers that have fueled growth, which translated to more tax dollars flowing into city coffers. “This is a balanced budget, we’re one of the lowest taxing municipalities around and we’re able to do this because of some policies this commission has taken in making an investment in our community infrastructure, because of that growth we’re able to afford all this,” he said. “We’re in a great spot and I’m proud of the hard work of our team, this is what Plant City does, we’re fiscally responsible and we take care of folks.”
Commissioner Dodson expressed a desire to spend some of the city’s reserve funds. “There are a lot of projects, we could provide for a better quality of life, I’d like to see us get creative with ideas for how we can utilize that money,” he said.
Commissioner Sparkman rebutted that spending lots of money may be unwise in the unsettled economy. “I don’t want to see us spending money for the sake of spending money,” he said. “This is one of the best budgets city staff has brought forward.”
The first public hearing on the budget will be September 11 during the CRA meeting after the commission meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. The final public hearing to adopt the budget will be on September 25. To learn more about the budget visit plantcitygov.com.