To the editor:<\/p>\n
Cape Coral\u2019s FY2027 budget should concern taxpayers for a reason that has nothing to do with politics or speculation.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s own numbers show Cape Coral is spending itself into a hole \u2014 a nearly $100 million hole.<\/p>\n
The proposed General Fund grows from $262.5 million to $285 million in a single year \u2014 an increase of $22.5 million, or 8.6%.<\/p>\n
At the same time, recurring General Fund revenue does not cover expenditures.<\/p>\n
The city projects a $5.9 million General Fund gap in FY2027. That gap grows to $9.8 million, $18 million, $26.1 million and ultimately $37.2 million by FY2031.<\/p>\n
Over five years, the city projects nearly $100 million in fund-balance use.<\/p>\n
These are not my projections. Every number comes from the city\u2019s proposed budget.<\/p>\n
That makes the city\u2019s own financial policies particularly important.<\/p>\n
Policy #1 states:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City of Cape Coral shall commit to and develop and maintain a structurally balanced budget, whereby current revenues equal current expenditures for the current and forecasted years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Policy #4 states:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City will not fund recurring municipal services with reserve funds and\/or other temporary or non-recurring revenue sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those policies appear on page 30 of the city\u2019s proposed budget.<\/p>\n
They are Cape Coral\u2019s standards. And they are being ignored to feed this Council\u2019s insatiable appetite for spending.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s own forecast never returns the General Fund to structural balance.<\/p>\n
Public safety is a major driver of the projected shortfall.<\/p>\n
Combined Police and Fire spending is projected to increase from approximately $171.3 million in FY2026 to $198.7 million in FY2028 \u2014 an increase of $27.4 million over two years \u2014 even after Council told the city manager no increase until after the November election. That direction was apparently ignored.<\/p>\n
Public safety alone will not bankrupt Cape Coral.<\/p>\n
Failing to control the overall growth of recurring government spending is the greater financial threat.<\/p>\n
And all of this exists before the potential impact of property-tax relief.<\/p>\n
If property-tax relief passes, it will not have created Cape Coral\u2019s financial problem.<\/p>\n
This is not an accidental shortfall. The city\u2019s own budget deliberately plans for it.<\/p>\n
The answer should not be higher taxes, higher fees or additional assessments to cover continued spending growth.<\/p>\n
The answer should be to control spending.<\/p>\n
Responsible government means making difficult choices \u2014 instead of simply sending taxpayers the bill.<\/p>\n
The numbers are already in front of Council.<\/p>\n
This is not a problem for some future Council to solve.<\/p>\n
It is a decision being made with this budget.<\/p>\n
Council can change that trajectory now \u2014 or vote to endorse it.<\/p>\n
Because every taxpayer matters.<\/p>\n
Wes Owen<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Cape Coral\u2019s FY2027 budget should concern taxpayers for a reason that has nothing to do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-377229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377229","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=377229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}