Escambia County Budget

County Commission Adopts Budget 3-2 as Stroberger’s Cuts to Sheriff, Constitutionals Go Nowhere

Commissioner Steve Stroberger wanted $2.8 million trimmed from five constitutional officers. His colleagues wanted to talk to the officers first.

The Escambia County Commission adopted its fiscal year 2026/27 budget on a 3-2 vote last Thursday night after Commissioner Steve Stroberger’s proposal to cut the sheriff and other constitutional officers failed to gain traction.

• Stroberger’s motion would have reduced the Sheriff’s request by $2 million, the Clerk by $400,000, and the Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections by $200,000 each. He said no one had offered a single cut all summer. His colleagues said they weren’t willing to cut officers they hadn’t spoken to, and that the budget had legal limits on what the board could touch.

Stroberger: “A finger prick”

The pitch. Stroberger began with Clerk Pam Childers, saying he opposed the $1 million reduction floated in earlier meetings and wanted it reduced to $400,000, which would include restoring her $100,000 legal contingency fund. That motion drew no second. He then broadened the ask to the other constitutional officers, arguing that all of them except the clerk were getting increases.

“This is a finger prick is all this is.”

His numbers. Stroberger said the Sheriff’s budget was rising almost 7%, the Supervisor of Elections almost 15%, and the property appraiser and tax collector almost 2%. With the $1 million cut, he said, the Clerk faced a reduction of nearly 20%. He noted the board had discussed $3 million in cuts a couple of meetings earlier, and that he had opposed hiring a consultant to find savings because department heads should know where to cut.

• County Clerk Pam Childers explained the funds she returned: “So last year when I turned funds back, I gave back all of my capital, which is why it was high. And also, there was an executive order with the president on passports, and we had a lot of revenue on passports, like $300,000 additional. So last year my return of funds was high for a variety of reasons—capital and passports in my fund, too.”

The Pushback

Legal limits. Chair Ashlee Hofberger reminded the board it is in the middle of a three-year contract with the sheriff signed last year.

• Hall said the Property Appraiser and Tax Collector budgets are approved by the Florida Department of Revenue, not the commission. The Tax Collector’s budget rose largely because the school board’s millage levy increased, he said. The Property Appraiser’s rose about $148,000, or 1.85%, and includes the same 2% raise the county is giving its own employees.

No conversations first. Commissioner Steven Barry asked whether Stroberger had spoken with the supervisor of elections or the tax collector. Stroberger said he had spoken with the Supervisor of Elections, who wasn’t happy with the idea.

• Barry said the constitutional officers would not see cuts as a pinprick and that this might have been a conversation for another venue. He said county departments had already absorbed labor cost increases and cut internally. He also said that if Amendment 3 passes in November, “everyone’s going to be bloodied up,” and that he saw no reason to start early.

Mixed signals. May said he applauded the goal and that he was willing to make a hard vote on a cut, but couldn’t cut officers he respects without knowing what they need. He argued the sheriff’s small return suggests his budget is spent, and warned that telling agencies to spend it or lose it invites end-of-year spending sprees.

• Commissioner Mike Kohler, a zero-based budgeting advocate, called the proposal “a transfer of funds” rather than a cut and said officers can return to the board for more money. He said he could support the reductions for everyone except the sheriff, citing public safety.

Hofberger said she’s for cutting but not public safety, arguing every division is understaffed.

What the county cut

Asked what the board’s own departments had trimmed, Hall listed general fund reductions from FY 25/26 to FY 26/27. Together they come to roughly $884,000.

• Facilities management: about $400,000
• Emergency management: about $270,000
• Development services: about $103,000
• Human resources: about $52,000
• Smaller reductions: OMB, public works, extension services, natural resources, purchasing, and neighborhood and human services

Corrections went the other way. The corrections general fund budget rose about $2 million, covering medical care, detention, pretrial release and the road prison. Hall pointed to state and federal requirements and higher FRS rates for high-risk employees, which he called an unfunded state mandate.

• May noted that crime is reportedly down while the jail budget goes up.

Trolleys, Transit and a VA study

The trolley question. Stroberger asked why UWF and the Pensacola Beach trolley don’t contribute more, citing roughly $570,000 for the UWF service. Hall said both carry an equal offsetting revenue entry, meaning the county spends the money and then bills the university and the Santa Rosa Island Authority. He said there is no added cost to the transit fund. Stroberger said that wasn’t what he had read in the budget.

Riders outside the service area. May pressed staff on what service limits mean for workers with disabilities who commute to NAS Pensacola. Staff said service inside the service area won’t be cut, and riders outside it fall under the CTC. A transit official said about 100 workers at the base were affected, about half had been worked through with schedule changes or other plans, and roughly 55 remained. Most of those work early-morning or late-evening shifts.

The VA study. Hofberger said she would vote for the budget if the $100,000 Kohler brought forward that morning for a VA hospital study were redirected to county projects and the clerk’s budget were restored. May asked why Escambia was carrying a regional study alone and said he was tired of studies that sit on shelves. Kohler said he’d talked with Santa Rosa County’s Colton Wright, who might ask his board to contribute. Neither amendment was adopted.

Pay raises for county workers

The board approved the 2% employee raise 5-0. It also approved, 5-0, an additional 4% for eligible full-time employees earning under $50,000, contingent on the outcome of the Amendment 3 vote in November. Staff recommended it take effect with the pay period beginning January 2, 2027, and that longevity pay be folded into hourly rates.

May’s amendment. May proposed 6% for the lowest-paid workers, first at $30,000, then $33,000, then $35,000. Hall said no county employee earns under $30,000, and Administrator Wes Moreno put the lowest salary near $32,000. Hofberger and Kohler raised pay compression, noting that a longtime employee at $51,000 had written commissioners after being left out of the 4%. Hall said the original motion also creates compression that HR would address.

• May withdrew his amendment after Barry suggested passing the item as is and revisiting it, and the raise passed unchanged.

The millage vote

Commissioners adopted the final millage rates 4-1, with Hofberger opposed. The rates are 6.571 mills countywide, 0.3590 for the Library MSTU and 0.6850 for the Sheriff’s Law Enforcement MSTU. At the tentative rates approved September 8, the aggregate millage was 2.32% above the rollback rate of 7.2897 certified by the property appraiser.

• Hofberger said she voted no because she “can’t stomach how we got to where we did.”

• The commission also approved the Santa Rosa Island Authority budget, a supplemental budget amendment of $4,330,370, the county’s 16% employer contribution rate for its 401 plan, and the FY 26/27 employee pay scale, all on 5-0 votes.