discussed delaying construction<\/a> to prepare for potential revenue losses if Amendment 3 passes. Ultimately, every council member supported moving forward, calling the headquarters a necessity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe have to do what we have to do when it comes to the police department,\u201d council member Terolyn Watson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Fort Myers City Council meets July 20, when members unanimously approved a construction contract for the city’s new $147.2 million police headquarters.<\/p>\n
Evan Williams<\/p>\n
Like governments across Florida, Fort Myers is setting its millage rate as it prepares the fiscal 2026-27 budget. Council members will hold public hearings later this summer and fall before adopting a final tax rate and budget ahead of the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s current millage rate is 6.5 mills, or $6.50 per $1,000 of taxable assessed value after exemptions, such as homestead. That equals about $650 annually on a home with a taxable value of $100,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fort Myers has lowered its millage rate each year for the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the city\u2019s current property values, adding 0.6515 mills on top of current rates would cover the police headquarters debt service alone but not the city\u2019s other capital improvement debt, Tenney said.<\/p>\n
That estimate also does not account for Amendment 3, which could require even higher tax rates or additional fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A conceptual rendering illustrates the planned Fort Myers police headquarters from the Central Avenue and Market Street perspective. The project is expected to be financed primarily through bonds.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers government<\/p>\n
State law allows the city to increase its property tax rate to 110% of the rolled-back rate with a two-thirds vote. Based on the current rolled-back rate of 6.6455 mills, that would allow an increase to 7.3112 mills. With a unanimous vote, Council could raise the rate as high as 10 mills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While an increase that large appears unlikely, council members may be more willing to consider higher rates if Amendment 3 passes. The measure requires approval from 60% of Florida voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The amendment would increase the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in fiscal 2027-28 and to $250,000 the following year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A conceptual rendering depicts the Market Street side of the planned Fort Myers police headquarters. The facility is expected to open in 2028.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers government<\/p>\n
City staff estimated in March that 43% of Fort Myers\u2019 $13.93 billion property tax base receives a homestead exemption. Those properties generate about $87.2 million annually, funding 48% of the city\u2019s general fund, which pays for services including police, fire, parks and other infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Amendment 3 is approved, the city estimates it would lose between $8.4 million and $14.3 million in annual residential property tax revenue. It also would lose another estimated $1.4 million annually because the amendment would reduce the annual assessment cap on commercial and other nonhomestead properties from 10% to 5%.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A conceptual rendering shows the main entrance of the proposed Fort Myers police headquarters. City Council approved a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[133243,209,211,210,832,897,38404,8191],"class_list":["post-347624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-amendment-3","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city-council","tag-fort-myers","tag-police-headquarters","tag-property-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347624","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=347624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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