{"id":230807,"date":"2026-04-14T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230807\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:30:10","slug":"st-pete-holds-open-house-for-upcoming-fiscal-year-budget-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230807\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete holds open house for upcoming fiscal year budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Input on how the city of St. Pete<\/a> should formulate its upcoming budget took place Monday night.<\/p>\n

More than three dozen people attended to share their input during the city’s budget open house. Mayor Ken Welch stated last year’s budget emphasized resilience including projects like water and stormwater infrastructure, along with sidewalks, streets and roads. Welch said the upcoming budget aims to build on that foundation and strengthen that focus by advancing economic and community resilience.<\/p>\n

“Our infrastructure needs to be substantially improved to meet the environmental and weather challenges that we are experiencing,” Welch said.<\/p>\n

Welch said the budget will aim to prioritize projects that strengthen infrastructure. It will require decisions that he admits may be difficult since community needs continue to increase and trend toward outpacing projected resources.<\/p>\n

Riviera Bay Civic Association President Vanessa Pugliese said such projects are vital and may be key to keeping neighbors in the city. Such projects include ongoing canal work<\/a> in the neighborhood, which Pugliese said also impact surrounding communities.<\/p>\n

While some have left following the 2024 hurricane season, Pugliese said some have also moved in.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it was being taken very seriously until these last hurricanes, so it was a horrible tragic event but it’s a catalyst for change that needs to happen and I hope the further away we get from those hurricanes the importance of the necessity of funding these projects isn’t lost,” Pugliese said.<\/p>\n

At the open house, several public commenters voiced an emphasis on education and youth-focused programs as a means to improve public safety. Talks of revitalization and infrastructure improvements, including the addition of sidewalks, were also raised.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Welch said funding will be essential to meet more of the objectives of the stormwater master plan.<\/p>\n

Aside from environmental challenges, Welch also listed education and youth opportunities, housing opportunities, neighborhood health and safety as key priorities. In addition, equitable arts, development and business opportunities. <\/p>\n

The mayor is expected to submit his recommended budget for city council approval in July. Public hearings are scheduled this September. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Input on how the city of St. Pete should formulate its upcoming budget took place Monday night. More…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[98595,103398,2346,17597,103397,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-230807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-community-resilience","9":"tag-environmental-challenges","10":"tag-ken-welch","11":"tag-open-house","12":"tag-riviera-bay-civic-association-president-vanessa-pugliese","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}