The City of Pensacola’s fiscal year 2016 budget, totaling $211,183,000, has been uploaded to the city’s website.
As we reported earlier, Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones has projected a 2.7 percent increase in taxable property values within the city limits. The increase in growth will result in an additional $375,800 in Property Tax Revenue for fiscal year 2016 while maintaining the City’s current millage rate of 4.2895 mils.
Mayor Hayward is not asking for an ad valorem increase and is not asking to use the General Fund balance to over FY 2016 operations. However, he asking for a $1.1 million drawdown for the General Fund to cover pension reform measures.
There will be no cuts in staff. The fiscal year 2016 budget maintains the same overall level of positions, 770, as in the fiscal year 2015 budget, but the positions have been shifted around.
The budget provides for the first time the city’s new organizational chart (2016CityChart ). The City Attorney reports directly to the mayor, but “administratively to City Administrator.”
The City Administrator is not responsible for all city operations, as outlined in the city charter. He manages Police, Fire, Sanitation, Financial Services, Public Works, City Clerk, Parks & Recreation, Housing, Planning Services and Inspection Services.
The Chief Operations Officer is responsible for Port, Airport, Constituent Services, Technology Services, Pensacola Energy and Human Resources.
The two positions report directly to the mayor.
The city budget will reviewed by the Pensacola City Council in late July.