Freeport City Council Adopts $114 Million Budget, Holds Millage Rate Steady
The Freeport City Council gave final approval to a $114 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year at a brief public hearing Tuesday, adopting the spending plan without a single word of public comment. The council also locked in the city’s property tax rate for another year, holding it at 4.7302 mills.
The final hearing, held at City Hall on September 15, was the last formality in a budget season that began back in July. Mayor Russ Barley called the session to order and handed the floor to the city attorney, who read through the figures Florida law requires the council to announce before adopting a budget: the proposed millage rate, the rollback rate, and the total spending plan.
The attorney announced a millage of 4.7302 mills — greater than the rollback rate of 4.5834 mills by 3.20 percent. The rollback rate is the tax rate that would bring in exactly the same property tax revenue as the current year, given rising property values. By adopting a rate 3.2 percent above rollback, the city will collect modestly more in property taxes than it did a year ago, even though the rate on a homeowner’s tax bill is unchanged from this year.
For a Freeport homeowner, 4.7302 mills works out to about $473 in city property tax for every $100,000 of taxable value. It is the same rate the council adopted a year ago.
The budget itself is a different story. The council adopted a total budget of $114,239,860 — a step up of roughly $18.8 million, or nearly 20 percent, from the $95.4 million plan adopted a year ago.
The final numbers close out a process that ran through three summer workshops — July 14, August 3, and August 18 — and a first public hearing on September 9. Along the way, the council agreed to a flat 3 percent raise for city employees, added $100,000 for road maintenance tied to a four-mile road project, and absorbed a steep jump in the cost of resurfacing State Road 20, which climbed from an initial $200,000 estimate to $575,900. Members also committed additional money toward turn lane work along the Highway 20 corridor, where the city has grown impatient waiting on the Florida Department of Transportation, and created a new general fund account for protected tree and sidewalk buyouts, an expense brought into focus by the Walmart development.
Tuesday’s votes were quick and quiet. A motion to adopt the millage rate was made and seconded; with no discussion offered and no residents rising to speak, the roll was called and the motion carried. The vote to adopt the $114,239,860 budget followed the same path, passing without opposition.
The new fiscal year begins October 1, when the budget takes effect and the tax rate carries over onto property tax bills for the year ahead.
Originally reported by the City of Freeport. Meeting video: City of Freeport via YouTube.
Image: City of Freeport via YouTube.
