Boca Raton Passes Budget; Tax Burden to Remain Stable for 2027

Boca Raton city hall, Boca Raton, FL, Sept. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Boca Raton’s city council voted 5-0 Tuesday to adopt a $283.9 million annual budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which will be supported without property tax increases for residents.

The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2027.

The total millage rate breaks down into an operating rate of 3.6476 mills and a voter-approved debt service rate of 0.0163 mills, the ordinance states. A mill represents $1 in tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed taxable value, meaning the owner of a home assessed at $450,000, after exemptions, would owe roughly $1,648 in municipal property taxes. School taxes and other special district taxes add to a homeowner’s total property tax bill.

The rate is essentially unchanged from recent years. Boca Raton’s tax rate has held close to $3.66 per $1,000 of taxable value since the 2015-16 fiscal year, though this year’s adopted rate is technically a fraction of a mill lower than last year’s, which was able to be driven by value added to the city’s ever-increasing tax ratable base.

Though official documents frames the budget at first glance as a tax increase, the figure is a product of Florida’s disclosure of a “rolled-back rate” – the tax rate that would raise the same amount of property tax revenue this year as last year, using only the value of property that existed in both years and excluding new construction and rising property values. For Boca Raton, that rolled-back rate is 3.4941 mills. Because the council adopted a rate of 3.6476 mills for operating purposes, the new rate exceeds the rolled-back rate by 4.39 percent, according to the ordinance. Under state law, that gap must be reported to taxpayers as “the percentage increase in property taxes,” even though the nominal rate itself barely budged. In effect, rising property values mean the city will collect more tax revenue this year than last, without having to raise the rate.

That extra revenue traces back to Boca Raton’s growing property tax base. A preliminary estimate this summer, according to Deputy City Manager and CFO Jim Zervis, showed the assessed value of Boca Raton properties rising by $2.6 billion over the past year, a 6.6 percent increase. The rise in values is driving much of the additional property tax collections built into the new budget.

The spending plan calls for the collection of $285.6 million in revenue against $283.9 million in expenditures, leaving the fund balance at $145.9 million by the end of the fiscal year, up from $144.2 million at the start, according to the city’s updated general fund balance sheet.

Boca Raton City Flag (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Council members also approved a series of late amendments to the tentative budget. Among the larger changes, the city moved $2.5 million in police pension costs and $4.2 million in fire-rescue pension costs, along with matching insurance premium tax revenue, out of the general fund and into a Retirement Sustainability Fund, a bookkeeping shift meant to isolate pension costs from day-to-day operating spending. The general fund also picked up $1.7 million in reserves to help balance the budget after the pension shift.

Other amendments included:

• Adding $45,000 for the Seafood Festival within the Public Affairs department budget, offset by a matching cut in Recreation Services.
• Shifting oversight and $120,000 in funding for a Community Resource Coordinator position from Police Services to Public Affairs.
• Cutting $162,400 for police radio equipment from the capital improvements budget.
• Adding $1.8 million for new fire-rescue trucks.
• Reducing planned pavement resurfacing funded through the Transportation Fund by $1.5 million, with the same amount added to the Infrastructure Surtax Fund instead.

Separately, the council approved rebudgeting unspent money from the current fiscal year into 2026-27, including $100,000 in new funding for public art projects on top of $55,200 carried over from this year, and $766,200 for housing grants and aid through the State Housing Initiatives Partnership program.

Boca Raton Fire-Rescue vehicle. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The budget adds 12 firefighters, four Fire-Rescue lieutenants, four EMS captains, a vehicle tech and a budget analyst. The additions will allow for the long-awaited full staffing of Station 8 (a separate story on the station is forthcoming).