MARCO ISLAND, Fla. — The Marco Island City Council held a special meeting to discuss budget options as the September 30 deadline approaches for finalizing the city's budget. Fox 4 attended the meeting where the assistant city manager presented three potential paths forward, but council members showed little consensus on how to proceed.
Fox 4's Eric Lovelace explains what options were given to council:
The council must finalize a budget by the end of September, and the purpose of the meeting was to give directions for a preliminary budget to be presented on September 8.
On August 18th, the council rejected a proposed millage rate of 1.4611 for the Fiscal Year 2026 budget. The assistant city manager outlined three options for the council:
Option 1: approve a 1.29 millage rate, which would bring in $890,000.
Option 2: keep the millage rate at 1.24 but reconsider the LCEC franchise fee, a 3% tax on all the island's electric bills estimated to bring in $1.5 million for capital spending.
Option 3: keep the millage rate at 1.24 with no LCEC fee and look to make significant cuts to the city's budget.
"There's room in the budget to cut," Brad Henson said.
Despite the different perspectives in the room, both residents and council members agreed that raising the millage rate wasn't the right approach.
"I favor the 1.29 and reconsidering the LCEC 3%," Councilman Rene Champagne said.
"Everything has gone up in price, so to expect the city staff to find a coupon, is not an option," Councilwoman Deb Henry said.
"At this point I can only offer 1.24," Councilwoman Tamara Goehler said.
The proposed cuts include $2 million in infrastructure maintenance covering road resurfacing, swells and stormwater, and median repairs. The plan also calls for removing $330,000 in capital maintenance items.
"They're gonna be able to make reasonable cuts to meet the 1.24 mill rate," Brad Henson.
The council moved forward with the 1.24 mill rate without the LCEC fee. Additional cuts are coming, and more details about those cuts will be revealed at the first budget hearing on September 8, with a final budget expected by the end of September.
