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Budget

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1. What is the city’s Adopted Budget?

The Adopted Budget is an operating plan designed to maintain the current high-levels of service provided to residents, the business community and visitors of the City of Hollywood. The operating plan or budget must be balanced, meaning that planned expenditures must equal anticipated revenues, and is annually adopted and approved by the City Commission resulting in the Adopted Budget.

2. How much is the FY 2017 Adopted Budget?

The FY 2017 Adopted Budget for all funds totals $509,521,122

3. What is a fiscal year?

A fiscal year, abbreviated as “FY,” is the annual period applicable to the annual operating budget. Different governmental levels, i.e., federal, state, county, and municipal, may have a different beginning date and ending date for their respective fiscal years.

• Broward County’s fiscal year runs from October 1 of the present year through September 30 of the following year.
• The City of Hollywood’s fiscal year runs from October 1 of the present year through September 30 of the following year.
• The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 of the present year through September 30 of the following year.
• The State of Florida’s fiscal year runs from July 1 of the present year through June 30 of the following year.

4. What is the city’s current property tax rate?

The City’s property tax rate for FY 2017 is 7.4479 mills and is unchanged from 7.4479 mills in FY 2016. Additionally, there is a debt service millage of 0.2884 mills added to the property tax rate as the voted debt service millage for FY 2017. The voted debt service millage is based upon the approval of a General Obligation Bond for Public Safety and Parks & Recreation capital improvements by a majority of the City residents qualified to vote and voting in the November 2004 elections and is used to repay that portion of the approved debt service scheduled for repayment in FY 2017. Combining the two millage rates, the total millage rate for the City of Hollywood is 7.7363 mills. It should be noted that there are additional tax assessments imposed by Broward County, the Broward County School Board, the South Broward Hospital District, and several other taxing authorities. All of these tax assessments comprise the total annual ad valorem taxes to be paid.

5. What is a mill?

One mill is the equivalent of $1 of property taxes per $1,000 of taxable value. Taxable value is defined as the assessed value of property minus the amount of any applicable exemptions provided by the Florida Statutes or the Florida Constitution.

6. What is the millage rate?

The millage rate also referred to as the ad valorem tax rate or the property tax rate refers to the number of mills assessed per $1,000 or the levy per $1,000 of taxable value of real property. The total millage rate for FY 2017 is 7.7363 mills and is comprised of the millage rate for real property of 7.4479 mills and a debt service millage rate of 0.2884 mills.

7. By what date does the City’s Budget need to be adopted?

Pursuant to Florida Statutes, the City of Hollywood must adopt and approve a balanced budget before October 1 of each year for the following year.

8. What is the difference between property taxes and ad valorem taxes?

There is no difference between the terms as they both refer to the tax on real property.

9. For purposes of the City’s budget, what does debt mean?

Debt is defined as an obligation resulting from the borrowing of money or from the purchase of goods and services. Debt instruments used by the City may include general obligation bonds, special obligation bonds, bond anticipation notes, and tax anticipation notes all of which must be approved by the City Commission before issuance. Additionally, a general obligation bond must be approved by a majority of the residents of the City qualified to vote and voting in an election; hence, the term “voted debt.”

10. What does debt service mean?

Debt service encompasses the payment of principal and interest related to long-term borrowing and, for purposes of the annual budget, is calculated on an annual basis over the term or life of the debt.

11. What is a Fund?

As used in governmental accounting, a fund may be defined as a fiscal and accounting entity which is comprised of a self-balancing set of accounts which reflect all assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses necessary to disclose the financial position and the results of operations.

12. What is the City’s General Fund?

The City’s General Fund is the fiscal and accounting entity used to account for both general government activities and those activities not required to be accounted for in another fund. Included in governmental activities and operations funded by the General Fund are the Offices of the City Commission, City Manager, and City Attorney; Public Safety, Police and Fire, Departments; Park, Recreation and Cultural Arts; Public Works; and Development Services Departments. The General Fund is the City’s largest fund with a FY 2017 total budget of $239,369,585 representing 45.7% of the FY 2017 Adopted All Funds Budget. Revenues, which will fund the General Fund, include net property taxes, utility service tax, simplified communications tax, franchise tax, occupational license fees, building permits, state shared revenues, fire rescue assessment fees, and user charges/fees.

13. What is an Enterprise Fund?

An Enterprise Fund is the type of fund used to account for operations which provide services to the general public similar to a private business enterprise in nature. The intent is that the fees charged to users of a particular service cover all costs of providing that service. Examples of enterprise funds in the City include the Water and Sewer Utility Fund, the Stormwater Utility Fund, the Golf Enterprise Fund, the Sanitation Enterprise Fund and the Parking Enterprise Fund.

14. What is the purpose of a Central Services Fund?

The Central Services Fund is used to allocate the cost of providing certain centralized services used by all departments and offices throughout the City. Included in the activities or operations of the Central Services Fund are the operations of the City’s central garage or fleet maintenance, design and construction management services provided during the planning and constructing of capital projects, printing and archiving services, centralized public relations services and information technology services and technical support.

15. What is the purpose of the City’s Insurance Fund?

The Insurance Fund provides a central risk financing mechanism and self-insurance reserve for the payment of claims relating to workers’ compensation, general liability and employee health. It is administered by the Risk Management Division of the Office of Human Resources and Risk Management. Activities of this fund include the retaining third party administrators, obtaining third party property insurance coverage and securing claims management services.

16. What is the Capital Improvement Program (CIP)?

The Capital Improvement Program, “CIP”, is a compilation of the various proposed capital projects planned over a specified five-year planning period. The program also incorporates and specifies the resources estimated to be available for programming as well as the costs involved for each individual, proposed capital project. Given the fact that the CIP is a planning document, typically only the current fiscal year’s funding allocations have been approved by the City Commission for expenditure.

17. What is a capital project?

A capital improvement project is defined as the major construction, expansion, purchase, or major repair or replacement of buildings, utility systems, streets, or other physical structures or property, which requires the expenditure of $10,000 or more and has an expected life or useful life of at least five years.

18. How many full-time employees work for the City?

The Adopted FY 2017 Operating Budget provides for 1,271 budgeted, full-time positions which represent a net increase of four (4) positions from the Amended FY 2016 Operating Budget.