The Ocala City Council held a budget workshop on August 11, 2026, to review the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget. Budget Director Tammy Haslam presented a $1,269,705,929 total budget, with the general fund balanced at the current millage rate of 6.6177. Revenue sources include ad valorem taxes (estimated $57.7 million from maintaining flat millage), fire assessments (unchanged at $18.2 million), and enterprise fund transfers ($29.8 million). Capital improvement projects total $71,197,968 for 48 projects. Council members discussed community sponsorships, downtown safety, the fire training facility, and future fiscal challenges. Technical issues with tablet displays occurred during the presentation.
Oh wow. I didn't expect to see so many people here. Are these all our staff? We got a crowd in the video. Good afternoon. We are here today to go over our physical 2026-27 proposed budget. And uh I will call Ms. Tamma. Oh take us through this. President, yeah. Thank you, Tammy can come on up and I want to thank her and all the budget staff and Janice Mitchell or CFO for all the work that they did, but also all of all of the departments, the department heads for working so closely with Tammy to get through this budget season. Everyone did uh great work in landing us where we are, and we look forward to making this presentation and taking your direction from here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh good afternoon, Tammy Haslam, City of O'Cala budget director. Thank you for your time and attention today as we review the proposed budget for fiscal year 26-27. Please feel free to stop me at any time to ask questions along the way. We adopted the tentative millage on August the fourth. We're conducting the workshop today to provide information related to the development of next year's budget. The public hearing for the first reading of the tentative budget is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th, with the public hearing for the second reading of the final budget scheduled for September the 15th. Both of those hearings will occur at 501 or soon thereafter in council chambers. As a reminder, the public hearing to adopt the fire assessment rates is scheduled for Wednesday, September 5th at 5 o'clock. Additionally, the community redevelopment area board must approve the CRA budgets. A CRA meeting is scheduled for 4 30 on Wednesday, September 9th. I am pleased to present to you the fiscal year 2026-27 proposed annual budget. The proposed budget totals 1,269 million seven hundred five thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine dollars and continues to support council's strategic goals of being an economic hub, maintaining operational excellence, employee engagement, fiscal sustainability, and enhancing quality of place. Given the complexity of the budget, I intend to highlight the major factors that contributed to its development. The next largest increase is the sanitation fund by $3.5 million. Salary and benefit costs along with operating costs continue to rise across the organization, along with reserve requirements to remain within policy limits. We'll first address the general fund. The general fund is balanced at the current millage rate of 6.6177 and totals 207 million, 375,596. And due to that increase in the taxable value of the current fiscal year, maintaining a flat millage rate will generate $57,711,053 in abdale revenue in fiscal year 2026-27, which is roughly $4.00 increase over the current year. Of note is that not all of the $57.7 is programmed into the general fund. The avalarum generated is split between multiple funds as directed by council. This slide provides the breakdown as well as how the additional $4.1 million generated from maintaining a flat millage is divided. Also keep in mind that roughly $4.3 million is transferred from the general fund to the CRA funds. Therefore, the true general fund advilorum revenue is roughly $43.6 million. The adopted budget also includes revenue generated from the fire assessment. The fire assessment was adopted in mid-year, mid-fiscal year 2021. The proposed budget assumes no change for the fire assessment rates, structure, or methodology. The revenue target is $18.2 million. These rates will be published in the newspaper on Friday, August 14th, and will be included as an insert in the Truth in Millage notices mailed by the property appraiser's office. As mentioned earlier, the final action on this matter will take place at a public hearing, scheduled for 5 o'clock on September 9th. The general fund budget includes transfers from four of the city's enterprise funds. The enterprise funds represented here make a transfer to the general fund. The total transfers equal roughly $29.8 million. We assume no change in the transfer amounts from the current year, which is the second year it has remained unchanged to continue to reduce our dependence on the transfers and allow for growth in the enterprise funds. Following the city's key management practices, the general fund reserved for fund balance is fully funded at the 20% level. This is critical to maintaining the citizens the city's cash flow at the beginning of the fiscal year, as well as acting as the emergency fund for the city in the event of a natural disaster or other unforeseen economic events. With regard to community sponsorships, the city has historically funded a few nonprofit community agencies.