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Budget

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1. What is the City’s Adopted Budget?

The Adopted Budget is a financial document designed to provide residents, business community members and other stakeholders of the resources used to maintain and enhance current service levels in the City of Hollywood. The 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. 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.

3. How much is the FY 2020 Adopted Budget?

The FY 2020 Adopted Budget for all funds net of interfund transfers totals $567,542,781.

4. 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 year. The City of Hollywood’s fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.

5. What is a mill?

One mill is the equivalent of $1.00 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 provide by the Florida Statutes or the Florida Constitution.

6. What is the City’s current property tax rate?

The City’s property tax rate for FY 2020 is 7.9226 mills which is an increase of 0.2234 mills from the FY 2019 rate of 7.6992 mills. This is made up of the operating millage of 7.4665 and the voted debt service millage of 0.4561 mills. 

 The voted debt service millage is based upon the two General Obligation Bonds approved by a majority of the City residents in the November 2004 and March 2019, and is used to cover associated debt service payments due in FY 2020. It should be noted that there are additional tax assessments imposed by other taxing authorities that will be included in your tax bill such as Broward County, the Broward County School Board, the South Broward Hospital District, and various other taxing authorities. All of these tax assessments comprise the total annual ad valorem taxes to be paid.

7. 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.

8. 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.” 

9. 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.

10. 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. 

11. 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; and departments such as Police, Fire, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts, Public Works; and Development Services. The General Fund is the City’s largest fund with a FY 2020 total budget of $305,356,955 representing 52% of the FY 2020 Adopted All Funds Budget. Revenues which will fund the General Fund include net property taxes, utility service tax, simplified communications tax, franchise fees, occupational license fees, building permits, state shared revenues, fire rescue assessment fees, and user charges/fees.

12. What is an Enterprise Fund?

An Enterprise Fund is a fund used to account for continuing operations which provide services to the general public that are similar to a private business enterprise in nature. The intent of an enterprise fund is to recover costs that will primarily be used to account for activities where the periodic determination of revenues and expenses is appropriate for capital maintenance, management control, or other public policy. 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.

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

The Central Services Fund is used to allocate the cost of providing certain centralized services among user 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, archiving and recordkeeping services, centralized public relations services as well as information technology services and technical support. 

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

The Self 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. Responsibility for the administration of the Self Insurance Fund rests with the Office of Human Resources that oversees matters involving employee related benefits such as life, health, and dental insurance coverage, as well as handling potential claims against the City. Activities of this fund include retaining of third party administrators, obtaining third party property insurance coverage, and securing claims management services.

15. What is the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)?

The Capital Improvement Plan, “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 are approved by the City Commission for expenditure.

16. 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

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

The Adopted FY 2020 Operating Budget provides for 1,305 budgeted, full-time positions which represent an increase of 20 positions from the Amended FY 2019 Operating Budget.