Cape Coral sets its 2027 property tax ceiling at 5.1988 mills, the rolled-back rate under the city's own resolution

Cape Coral City Council voted on July 22 to advertise a maximum property tax rate of 5.1988 mills for the fiscal year that begins October 1, setting the ceiling that the city's August TRIM notice cannot exceed. The vote was 7 to 1. Evan Williams reported it for Gulfshore Business.

The maximum, or not-to-exceed, rate is a procedural step every Florida city takes in July, and it does two things at once: it fixes the highest number the truth-in-millage notice can show property owners in late August, and it preserves whatever room the council wants to keep before the final rate is adopted. A council can lower the rate at its September hearings, but it cannot raise it above the advertised maximum without restarting the notice process.

The number Cape Coral advertised sits above the rate it carries now, and the resolution explains why that is less strange than it looks. Resolution 194-26 identifies 5.1988 mills as both the proposed operating rate and the rolled-back rate, which under Florida law is the rate calculated to raise the same ad valorem revenue as the prior year, measured against the current roll with new construction excluded. A ceiling set exactly at that figure is a revenue-neutral ceiling. Gulfshore Business reported the city's current operating rate as 5.1471 mills and a July 1 taxable value for Cape Coral of $33.1 billion. A rolled-back rate that comes in above the rate now in force is what happens when the value of property already on the roll fails to keep pace, and although the city would be collecting roughly the same in total, an owner whose own taxable value held steady would still owe more at 5.1988 than at 5.1471.

Alongside the operating levy, the council carries a separate 0.1554-mill levy to cover debt service on the parks general obligation bond that Cape Coral voters approved. That piece is committed to bondholders and is not part of the discretionary operating rate.

At the advertised operating rate, the city projects about $165.2 million in property tax revenue toward a general fund of roughly $285 million, within an all-funds budget of about $1.4 billion. The two statutory public hearings that set the final rate and adopt the budget are scheduled for September 10 and September 24, and TRIM notices reach property owners before then.

Resolution 194-26 is now linked above. Its agenda request form carries the rates, states that council may later reduce the millage but cannot increase the levy without additional notification to all city property owners, and fixes the first public hearing for September 10 at 5:05 p.m. in the council chambers, a date the city says was chosen to avoid colliding with the county commission and school board hearings. The vote count, the current 5.1471-mill rate, the taxable value and the revenue and budget totals come from the Gulfshore Business report rather than from the meeting record, which lists the item only as approved. The item follows the city's July 23 budget town hall, which was the first public forum on the fiscal 2027 plan.

Clarification, July 26, 2026. This brief originally said the resolution setting the maximum rate was not posted where we could reach it, and framed the 5.1988-mill ceiling as room the council preserved above the flat rate it had proposed. The resolution has since been located in the city's meeting portal and is now linked. It identifies 5.1988 mills as the rolled-back rate, which is the revenue-neutral benchmark under Florida law and materially changes how the ceiling should be read. The headline, summary and third paragraph have been revised accordingly. The figures reported on July 24 were accurate and have not changed.