Leesburg commissioners voted Monday night to hold the line on the city’s millage rate and then approved a $168.6 million budget for the coming fiscal year.
Commissioners set the millage rate at 4.268 per $1,000 of taxable property value – the same as this past year. That number is 2.26 percent more than the rollback rate of 4.1736 – the amount needed to collect the same revenue as the prior year – and is necessary to pay for operating expenditures during fiscal year 2018-19 beginning Oct. 1, the resolution passed Monday night says.
The new budget includes more than $26.8 million in the general fund, which is the primary operating fund of the city. That money will come from a variety of sources, including ad valorem taxes, other taxes, licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenue, charges for services, fines and forfeits, miscellaneous revenues and transfers from other funds.
The largest chunk of the general fund – just shy of $11 million – comes from transfers from other funds, followed closely by $9.8 million through ad valorem and other taxes. The general fund also includes more than $2.7 million from intergovernmental revenue and $1.5 million from licenses and permits.
When taking into accounts all streams of revenue, the city plans to collect about $109.5 million in charges for services and close to $13.7 million in taxes (ad valorem and other). The budget also shows $9.5 million in miscellaneous revenue, about $4.8 million in intergovernmental revenue and $3.6 million coming in via licenses and permits.
In turn, Leesburg plans to spend a little more than $95.1 million on the physical environment, about $21.4 million on general government and $16.1 million on public safety. Another $5.1 million goes to transportation and $3.5 million is set aside for culture/recreation.
Total reserves – future use, contributions to the fund balance and contributions to retained earnings – amount to a little more than $3 million, the budget shows.
