Following a months-long budget process, city commissioners are set to vote Thursday, Sept. 24, on Lakeland’s $872 million Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) annual budget.
- The proposed Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget is 7% higher than last year’s $815 million budget.
- Nearly two-thirds of Lakeland’s net FY27 revenue — $572 million — comes from charges for electric, water, and waste services. Property taxes account for $65 million, or about 7.5%.
- Personnel is the largest spending category at $236 million, 27% of the budget.
- Nearly $177 million in capital spending includes renewal and replacement of aging city infrastructure.
- The final budget vote happens Sept. 24; planning for possible Amendment 3 cuts begins in October.
Dig deeper
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Much of the budget reflects city-run utilities and enterprise operations, such as Lakeland Linder International Airport, largely funded by user charges and dedicated revenues.
The $872 million figure is a net budget, excluding transactions among city funds to avoid double-counting, according to updated figures the city provided to LkldNow on Sept. 16.
Same tax rate, higher revenue
The city’s proposed property-tax rate remains unchanged at 5.4323 mills as Florida voters prepare to consider statewide Amendment 3 in November. Rising taxable property values and new construction are projected to generate about $3 million more in property-tax revenue, as previously reported.
During a July 23 discussion of peer-city comparisons, Mayor Sara Roberts McCarley said, “Our millage is lower, and we’re providing really high-quality services for that.” She also said commissioners should “go into our budgets line by line.”
General Fund spending accounts for $197 million of the net budget and pays for core services including police, fire, and public parks.
“The increases to our operating expenses have been limited to 1.5% unless justified,” City Manager Shawn Sherrouse told commissioners at a Sept. 10 budget hearing.
Two of 30 General Fund divisions exceeded that target — Risk Management because of higher firefighter-physical costs, and Parks because of rising fertilizer and chemical expenses.
Budget totals differ because the line-item budget excludes some transfers into sub-funds, such as debt service funds, while the appropriations ordinance includes them. Those transfers and receipts “must also be budgeted and approved by the City Commission,” Communications Director Larry Little told LkldNow.
Priority projects
Beyond day-to-day operations, the FY27 budget includes major capital projects across the city.
Capital and maintenance projects for water and wastewater are allocated $53.3 million. Water Utilities Director Joe Costine noted that parts of Lakeland’s underground utility system are “80 years old” — old enough that some records predate computers.
Lakeland Linder International Airport has $25.37 million budgeted for capital and maintenance projects. Capital spending totals $176.7 million, or 20% of the budget, including upgrades to aging utilities, roads, and city equipment, as well as expansion and new construction.
One long-sought priority is replacement of the city’s aging radio system. The radios, installed beginning in 2012, are no longer supported and soon will be incompatible with a new encryption standard Polk County public-safety agencies plan to adopt.
At the July 23 workshop, IT Director Oscar Torres said his team has been “scrounging on eBay to find parts so that we can try to fix them.”
The replacement, estimated at $28.4 million, will be phased in over roughly two and a half years, with police and fire first. FY27 includes $1.68 million in debt service for the project, including roughly $601,000 from the General Fund.
Several major capital programs, including airport, wastewater, and transportation projects, also rely on federal or state grant funding. In FY27, the city anticipates more than $47 million in federal, state, and local grant revenue.
Personnel over pickleball
Personnel is the largest spending category in the city’s net budget, at $236.1 million, or 27% of FY27 spending.
General employees are budgeted for a 2% across-the-board increase, with eligible workers receiving 2.5% or 3% merit raises. A citywide wage study also identified 445 positions needing market adjustments.
Separate bargaining agreements cover police, fire, and Lakeland Electric employees. Police will receive $1.5 million in salary adjustments, apart from across-the-board and merit increases, while negotiated Electric adjustments total $1.38 million. Unionized Fire employees will receive a 1.5% across-the-board increase, with eligible workers able to receive 2.5% merit increases.
At the same time, city management pared back other departmental requests. Departments sought $7.3 million in additional operational funding, but management recommended only about $1.4 million — leaving $5.9 million out of the proposed budget.
“You kind of glossed over that pretty quickly,” Madden told Sherrouse at the Sept. 3 workshop, emphasizing the $5.9 million figure. Sherrouse said the requests were “not recommended,” adding that staff found alternative ways to meet some needs while others could return later.
One proposal left out was a $3.1 million pickleball complex at Holloway Park in south Lakeland, with the cost spread over two years. Parks officials outlined 14 courts with lights and a pavilion, but after extensive commission debate, it was not included in the revised budget.
What’s next?
The final public hearing and vote on the FY27 budget is set for 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at City Hall, following unanimous tentative approval of the millage rate and budget on Sept. 10. FY27 begins Oct. 1.
Then attention will turn quickly to Amendment 3. If Florida voters approve the measure in November, city staff estimates Lakeland would lose about $9.5 million in property-tax revenue in FY28, rising to roughly $12.5 million in FY29.
Departments have prepared 10% reduction scenarios for commissioners to begin reviewing in October. Sherrouse cautioned that they include potentially significant service cuts: “We have a running start. It is significant.”
Mayor McCarley summed up the schedule during the budget discussions: “We catch our breath after September 24th, and then we dive back in the water on October 1st.”
Newsroom note: A figure regarding capital projects was misstated upon initial publication due to a calculation error and has been corrected along with minor clarifications.
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