The Broward County Commission held a budget workshop on May 13, 2025, to review the FY26 budget proposals from the Supervisor of Elections and the 17th Judicial Circuit (Chief Judge), followed by a discussion of commissioner priorities. The workshop highlighted significant budget pressures from uncertain state and federal funding, rising costs, and the need to balance public safety, affordable housing, and other community needs.
Each commissioner presented their top priorities for the upcoming budget:
Good morning. Um budget season. It is it has arrived. It has arrived. This is important because it's actually determines uh we get to show where our values are. And that's what budgets do. Um today we are going to be first of all, commit both Commissioner Bogan and Commissioner Davis are on remote. But they can hear us and we can hear them. And they will be um weighing in as well. Today we're going to be hearing from the supervisor of elections and from the um from the courts. Um with that, I think we can go ahead and get started. So good morning, mayor and uh commissioners. Um today we have on the agenda um a supervisor of elections um overview. Um the new chief judge will be joining us shortly to discuss uh the court's uh priorities and how they interface with um our our general fund uh budget. And then, of course, we're gonna round out the um discussion today with uh commissioner priorities. Um the materials were sent out to you on Friday. You um have received um two substitute pages um for the supervisor of elections presentation last night. Um it did not change, just to reiterate um it did not change any of the the totals or the percentages but just some some details on on some of the lines. But um, we're gonna go through that. Um everything's been uploaded correctly online and in front of you, um, and certainly um uh with uh what the public will see. Um so I'm going to ask uh Dave McKenzie from budget office to to walk us through um the slides here for the supervisor of elections, and um we can then um come back to me and and then um um supervisor Scott uh and Ms. Hall are here to answer questions. They will not have a separate presentation. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Monica. Uh good morning, Mayor, Commissioners. Uh, I'm David McKenzie from the Office of Management and Budget, and I'm here with you this morning to present the FY26 budget proposal for the Broward County Supervisor of Elections. Uh we'll begin this morning with uh summary overview of the summary totals of the four components that are included in the supervisor's FY26 budget proposal. Uh for their administration operations, the proposal is 18.5 million for FY26. The March 2026 municipal election is 35,400. The August 2026 primary election is uh proposed at 11.7 million, and the capital equipment proposal is 689,000 for a total proposed budget of 31.1 million. Focusing in first on the overview of the supervisor's administration and operations proposal for all items excluding the voter list maintenance. Uh the proposed budget for administration and operations is 17.3 million, which is a 6.6% increase over the prior year. We do have the individual detail of that change prepared for you on the next slide. Uh for the voter list maintenance item, the FY26 proposed amount is 1.16 million, uh, which is a 5% increase, uh bringing their total request for this function to uh to a six and a half percent increase over the prior year at a total of 18.5 million dollars. The detail I mentioned of the proposed year-to-year changes in the administration operations budget is shown here. Uh salaries are proposed to increase at 9% over the prior year. That includes eight new part-time positions or four full-time equivalents that will be assisting with the recruiting and scheduling of election workers. Uh benefits overall, uh, as well as a four percent increase uh in salary for existing positions. Uh benefits overall is a 12% increase over the prior year with group insurance being the largest driver for them at a 17% increase. Uh contractual services has a proposed increase of 9%, which includes funding for a new creole translation service. The increase in software maintenance is partly due to a contingency amount for the potential unavailability of grant aid in the coming year, as well as a vendor change in the registration and election software provider, which is also a contributing factor to the decreases that you see proposed for equipment maintenance and office equipment. Uh the security change represents a transitioning of the full cost of securing uh the supervisor's facility into the supervisor's budget for FY26 as a portion uh of that expense had been budgeted in the county's facilities management division during FY25. Uh the remain uh there's also an item that is not on here, not came to uh the supervisor very recently regarding Johnson controls and expense for that facility that will increase the proposed amount here by sixty thousand dollars uh for FY26. The remaining items are normal changes and regular activities, and the net total of all changes is approximately 1.1 million dollars. The March 2026 municipal election request of 305,400 is based upon the six municipalities that have notified the SOE of their intent to hold an election in March. Those cities will obviously reimburse the county for 100% of the cost of those elections, and the six municipalities that may be participating are Hillsborough Beach, Lauder Hill, Lazy Lake, Lighthouse Point, Hembro Pines, Districts 1 and 4, and C Branch Lakes. The detail of the March municipal election request is provided on the screen. Uh and it includes items like salaries and benefits, communication expenses, postage, printing costs, among others. The August 2026 primary election request of 11.7 million does not include any expenses for potential recounts and is based upon the supervisor's projected turnout of 25%, with that figure being an increase over the 2024 turnout in August, which was 17 and a half percent.