{"id":399999,"date":"2026-09-15T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/399999\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T01:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:38:09","slug":"fort-lauderdale-commissioners-adopt-1-28-billion-budget-keep-same-millage-rate-for-19th-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/399999\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale commissioners adopt $1.28 billion budget, keep same millage rate for 19th year"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Fort Lauderdale commissioners voted 4-1 on Monday to adopt a $1.28 billion<\/a> budget, while maintaining the same millage rate<\/a> for the 19th year. <\/p>\n

Laura Reece, the director of the city\u2019s office of management and budget, said the 2027 budget included about $12 million in reductions. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor somebody who has a $640,000 [home,] which is the average single-family value in this city, it was $180 a year or $15 per month,\u201d Reece told commissioners before the vote about the impact on the city\u2019s residents for the upcoming year. <\/p>\n

Dean J. Trantalis, the mayor; Ben Sorensen, the vice mayor; and Commissioners Steven Glassman and Pamela Beasley-Pittman voted to pass the proposed budget. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe increases that we see in our budget are often reflected in the increases that we provide in the salaries and benefits to our employees,\u201c Trantalis said. <\/p>\n

The budget included an increase of about $14 million in salaries and wages. It also included $6.1 million in employee benefits, such as health insurance and pension contributions. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo maintain and attract good people to serve in public safety, we need to be able to be competitive in what we offer,\u201d Trantalis said. <\/p>\n

Commissioner John C. Herbst, who had supported a rollback rate of about 3.9, was the dissenting vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can support our public safety personnel,\u201d Herbst said. \u201cWe can support our employees, and at the same time, we can also ask, \u2018Are we right-sizing our staff? Are we right-sizing our government?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Cooper, the acting city manager, said the millage rate<\/a> remained at 4.11 per $1,000 of taxable value. The fire assessment fee is $444 per residential dwelling. <\/p>\n

Fire Chief Stephen W. Gollan<\/a> said the budget will cover the cost of a new station in the Flagler Village neighborhood. The capital improvement plan also includes a new station at Holiday Park. <\/p>\n

In June, Broward County\u2019s property appraiser estimated the city\u2019s increase in property value at 7.16%, or $4.5 billion, including $1.7 billion attributed to new construction. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe property tax on homestead properties makes up about 45% of our budget. It will definitely have an impact on us if that amendment were to pass,\u201d Trantalis said about constitutional Amendment 3, which is on the ballot in Florida on Nov. 3rd to support an increase in the homestead tax exemption. <\/p>\n

More on the budget<\/p>\n

\"\"FORT LAUDERDALE 2027 BUDGET <\/p>\n

Infrastructure projects<\/p>\n

Here are some of the projects included in the city\u2019s capital improvement plan (2027-2031):<\/p>\n

$8.1 million for seawall replacements$6.5 million for bridge replacements$4.1 million for roadways and sidewalks$1.5 million for traffic mobility improvements such as bike lanes and flashing beacons <\/p>\n

Related story: Fort Lauderdale moves forward with plans for new City Hall; city manager resigns during commission meeting<\/a><\/p>\n

Related documents<\/p>\n

Watch the meeting<\/p>\n

Related links<\/p>\n

Related social media post<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Fort Lauderdale commissioners voted 4-1 on Monday to adopt a $1.28 billion budget, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-399999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399999","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=399999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}