City of Miami Budget for FY 2026-27

The City of Miami's proposed FY 2026-27 budget totals $3.732 billion, up from the $3.6819 billion adopted for FY 2025-26.

In the proposed Budget in Brief, City Manager James Reyes puts the total at $3.732 billion, including $1.862 billion for operating and $1.870 billion for capital, and says it keeps the current millage rate and the same solid waste fees (City of Miami FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief). The overview page of the same document lists the operating budget at $1,862,446,000 but gives the six-year capital plan as $1,780,762,000, with $89,274,000 newly appropriated (Budget in Brief, overview). The letter and the overview therefore give different capital figures, and the document does not explain the difference.

A year earlier, the adopted FY 2025-26 budget totaled $3.6819 billion: $1.830 billion in operating expenditures and $1.988 billion for the six-year capital plan, with a General Fund of $1.225 billion (FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget in Brief). The city adopts two budgets every year, an operating budget and a capital budget, and the city describes the Budget in Brief as a summary of the operating budget (City of Miami Budget in Brief page).

As of October 18, 2026, the city's budget pages still post the FY 2026-27 documents under the word proposed: the Budget in Brief page offers the proposed 2026-2027 Budget in Brief, and the Operating Budget page links the proposed operating budget book (City of Miami; Operating Budget page). The Government Finance Officers Association award printed at the back of the same document is for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025 (Budget in Brief). Anyone who needs the final adopted figures should ask the budget office directly until the adopted book is posted.

In Miami, property taxes supply $690.9 million, or 53.2 percent, of the proposed $1,297,728,000 General Fund for FY 2026-27, the largest single source of money for daily city operations.

Source for every row: City of Miami FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief, General Fund Revenue Sources, total $1,297,728,000.

The General Fund is one of four fund groups in the Miami operating budget. The others are Special Revenue Funds at $333,677,000, restricted to specific purposes; the Internal Service Fund at $138,435,000, used to allocate costs between city cost centers; and Debt Service Funds at $92,606,000, which repay principal and interest on city debt (Budget in Brief).

For FY 2025-26 the City of Miami anticipated $647.599 million in property tax revenue, up $58.346 million or 9.9 percent over FY 2024-25, after the tax roll grew 10.2 percent, with 3.4 percent of the increase from new construction (FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget in Brief). The FY 2026-27 proposal lists property taxes at $690.9 million with the total millage unchanged at 7.3616 mills (FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief).

Miami Police and Fire-Rescue take 56.5 percent of the proposed General Fund, $732.5 million for public safety, and wages and benefits make up almost three quarters of all General Fund spending.

By function, Miami's proposed FY 2026-27 General Fund puts $732.5 million into public safety, $156.3 million into public works and $132.3 million into general government (City of Miami FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief). By category, salaries and wages come to $609.2 million (46.9 percent) and employee benefits to $384.4 million (29.6 percent), with operating expense at $211.8 million (16.3 percent) and transfers out at $70.8 million (5.5 percent) (Budget in Brief).

Source for every row: City of Miami FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief, General Fund Budget by Department. The document notes that budget amounts are General Fund only while position counts cover all funds.

Among other Miami departments, the proposal lists Parks and Recreation at $69,273,000, Solid Waste at $55,700,000, the Building Department at $53,010,000 and Resilience and Public Works at $46,188,000 in General Fund money (Budget in Brief, operating budget by department). The mayor's message names neighborhood drainage projects from Shorecrest to Flagami, an expanded community composting pilot, new kayak launches and riverwalks, and the return of the Olympia and Tower Theaters among the year's priorities (Mayor's Budget Message).

The city organization chart in the same document also lists the Bayfront Park Management Trust, the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, the Downtown Development Authority, the Southeast Overtown Park West and Omni community redevelopment agencies, the Coconut Grove and Wynwood business improvement districts, the Liberty City Trust and the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust (City of Miami Budget in Brief, city organization). The chart names a separate executive or director for each of them.

The City of Miami's total millage is 7.3616 mills in both the FY 2025-26 adopted and FY 2026-27 proposed budgets, which works out to $7,362 of city tax on $1,000,000 of assessed value.

The Miami rate splits into 7.1080 mills for general operations and 0.2536 mills for general obligation debt (City of Miami FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief). The city's own chart shows city taxes of $3,681 on a $500,000 assessed value and $7,362 on $1,000,000 at that rate (Budget in Brief, property tax millage). Mayor Eileen Higgins writes that the budget holds the millage rate flat, at its lowest level in 60 years, and that the State's possible property tax amendment was factored into the approach (Mayor's Budget Message).

The city is only one line on a Miami property tax bill. Of each dollar paid in property taxes, the city's chart assigns 37 cents to the City of Miami, 33 cents to Miami-Dade Public Schools, 25 cents to Miami-Dade County and 5 cents to regional taxing authorities; of the city's share, 97 cents pays for operations and 3 cents for debt (Budget in Brief, allocation of each dollar).

The homestead exemption that lowers a Miami resident's taxable value is handled by the county, not the city. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser says it can save homeowners up to $50,000 on the taxable value of a primary residence: the first $25,000 applies to all taxing authorities, and the second $25,000 excludes School Board taxes and applies to assessed values greater than $50,000 (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). Applications are due by March 1, and the appraiser's line is 305-375-4712 (Property Appraiser, homestead exemption).

Miami's proposed six-year capital plan is led by Resilience and Public Works at $703,839,000 and Parks and Recreation at $512,312,000, but the plan's project list costs far more than its identified funding.

The City of Miami defines a capital improvement as a physical public improvement or addition to fixed assets with a value of $5,000 or more and a useful life of at least three years, compiled by the Office of Management and Budget into a six-year plan (City of Miami Capital Budget page). In the FY 2026-27 proposal, the largest six-year department totals after public works and parks are Real Estate and Asset Management at $414,346,000, General Services Administration at $93,965,000, Fire-Rescue at $90,096,000 and Building at $84,374,000 (City of Miami FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget in Brief).

Miami's capital overview gives a total project cost of $3,798,981,000 against six-year funding of $2,042,742,000, leaving a shortfall of $1,756,238,000 shown in parentheses in the city's table (Budget in Brief, capital overview).

Miami debt service is budgeted at $92.606 million for FY 2026-27: $41,445,000 for general obligation bonds and $51,161,000 for special obligation bonds, with every forecast year through FY 2031-32 below that amount and the lowest at $70,974,903 (Budget in Brief, debt service). The largest voter-approved bond still being spent is the Miami Forever Bond, $400 million split into Sea-Level Rise Mitigation and Flood Prevention ($192M), Affordable Housing ($100M), Parks and Cultural Facilities ($78M), Roadway Improvements ($23M) and Public Safety ($7M), with a first tranche of $58.7M (Miami Forever Bond).

City of Miami voters decide on November 3, 2026 whether to allow up to $450,000,000 in general obligation bonds to repair and replace fire and police facilities, with the debt millage capped at 0.5935 mills.

The commission resolution posted on the city's election page authorizes the bonds, subject to the election, to repair and replace critically deteriorating fire and police facilities, including new fire stations and a new public safety headquarters for police and first responders (City of Miami 2026 Bond Referendum and Special Election). The city labels the item Safe and Ready Miami: General Obligation Bonds for Police/Fire Facilities Without Increasing Millage Rate (City of Miami). The mayor's message describes the same question as a way to generate resources to renovate, expand or rebuild police and fire-rescue infrastructure (Mayor's Budget Message).

A companion charter amendment would create an advisory general obligation bonds oversight committee with authority to monitor and publicly report on the status, cost, timeline and remaining funds of every active capital project paid for with city GO bonds (City of Miami election page). A separate question asks whether the city may lease approximately 27.5 acres on Virginia Key to Virginia Key, LLC for a 45-year initial term at a minimum annual guaranteed rent of $2,200,000 (City of Miami).

Early voting for Miami voters runs Monday, October 19, 2026 through Sunday, November 1, 2026, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at any countywide early voting site; the city notes that Miami City Hall will not be used as an early voting site (City of Miami election page).

The full budget books are posted on the Office of Management and Budget pages at miami.gov, and the office answers at (305) 416-1500 or [email protected].

The Office of Management and Budget sits in the Miami Riverside Center (MRC), 444 S.W. 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33130, and its department director is Marie Gouin (City of Miami Management and Budget). Its page links the mayor's budget message, the Budget in Brief, the operating budget, the capital budget, the Miami Forever Bond and the past budget books (City of Miami). The proposed operating budget PDF is 44MB and the proposed capital budget book is 52MB, so the 6MB Budget in Brief is the quicker read on a phone (Operating Budget page; Capital Budget page; Budget in Brief page).

A practical order of reading the Miami budget: start with the Budget in Brief for the revenue and spending charts and its millage page, then compare the rate with the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes (TRIM Notice) that the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser page describes (Property Appraiser).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, re-reading the City of Miami FY 2026-27 proposed and FY 2025-26 adopted Budgets in Brief, the mayor's budget message, the November 3 bond referendum page, the Miami Forever Bond page and the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser homestead page.