Palm Coast City Council Adopts Budget, Millage Rate

The Palm Coast City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to adopt the proposed budget for the Fiscal Year 2027, as well as a millage rate of 4.1387. The budget was passed as presented at $533,947,885. For the second of two meetings scheduled to finalize the following year's budget, attendance Wednesday was sparse. City Council candidate Jeani Duarte, Sheriff Rick Staly, and two other residents were the only attendees in the chambers. Duarte was the only person to weigh in during public comment. Over half of the budget is made up of proprietary funds - $311,610,941, equivalent to 58.4% of the overall budget. This is mostly made up of wastewater capital and utilities, stormwater management, and collection and sanitation. Each accounting for about a sixth of the budget is a general fund allotment of $88,006,917 and a capital projects fund of $88,591,235. The remainder of the budget comes from internal service funds and special revenue funds. The millage rate adopted by the City Council was a rolled-back rate, meaning it lowers the property tax rate to keep residents' bills approximately the same dollar amount as the previous fiscal year. The City Council in July capped themselves at a 4.2296 rate, and ultimately opted for a lower rate than that. Already the city has made preemptive moves to tighten its budget with Amendment 3 potentially wiping out much of the city's property tax revenue. This has led to job positions being cut and fewer new deputies being funded than were requested by the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. "We're gonna have to find other revenue sources," Mayor Mike Norris said after the meeting of the potential impacts of Amendment 3. "We've avoided FPL franchise fees, the city utility fee, and the fire service fee. Those are pretty predominant across the state for counties to have those, and we have avoided that. But now we may have to shift the burden from [taxing] ad valorem to service [...] I'm gonna be pushing to cut [spending] first."