Good morning, St. Pete! Happy Groundhog Day, the one day a year where we ignore actual meteorologists and let a rodent in Pennsylvania predict the weather based on his shadow. We've built rockets to Mars, but apparently we still need a groundhog to tell us if winter's ending. Peak humanity right there.

Your guide to four committee meetings, $18 million in budget holes, and what happens if Tallahassee nukes our property taxes

Wednesday was one of those days at City Hall where you could watch elected officials' faces go from "cautiously optimistic" to "oh no" in real time. Four committee meetings. Seven hours. And enough financial bombshells to make everyone uncomfortable.

Here's what happened and why it matters to you.

Let's start with the nightmare scenario that Tom Green and the finance team dropped on City Council during the Committee of the Whole budget meeting.

You know how there's been all this noise in Tallahassee about property tax relief? Turns out, the finance team actually did the math on what those proposals would mean for St. Petersburg. And the math is... not great.

Worst case scenario: House Joint Resolution 201 would eliminate all property taxes on homesteaded properties except for schools. The impact on St. Pete? $89 million gone.

To put that in perspective: If the city kept police and fire departments funded at current levels and just absorbed that $89M loss, every other city operation—parks, roads, stormwater, permitting, planning, libraries, rec centers, all of it—would face a 47% budget cut.

Not a typo. Forty. Seven. Percent.

Tom walked council through a side-by-side comparison showing current funding versus what would be left. Right now, after funding police and fire, there's about $209.7 million for everything else the city does. Under HJR 201, that drops to $99.7 million.

Council Member Driscoll summed up what everyone was thinking: "I'm going to have a hard time telling people with a straight face that we're increasing by almost 8%. But we better show something for it because outside influences and our residents are asking: where's the money going?"

The other proposals aren't much better:

The data came from Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty's office, which built a tool specifically to help local governments understand the potential impact. (Thanks, Mike.)

The slightly less terrible news: Senate leadership is reportedly pushing back on the most extreme proposals. They're favoring modest increases to homestead exemptions instead—which would still hurt, but wouldn't be catastrophic.

The catch? Nothing's decided. The House and Senate have to agree on identical language for anything to make it to the ballot. And if they can't agree during regular session, the governor could call a special session.

So that's hanging over everything else the city is trying to do right now.

As if the Tallahassee scenarios weren't enough, Budget Director Liz Aberle presented the preliminary numbers for FY 2027, which starts October 1st.

The gap: Projected revenues of $426.6 million. Projected expenditures of $444.5 million. That's an $18 million shortfall.

Revenue side:

Expense side:

Liz reminded everyone this is normal at this stage. The gap gets closed as they refine estimates and make budget decisions through the spring and summer.

But Council Member Gurtis wasn't having it this year.

"I'm completely changing my budget priorities," he said. "I'm proposing no new FTEs unless it replaces something already on the vacancy list. And new spending would require identifying a source or replacing a current project first."

Translation: He's going full conservative mode because of the uncertainty from Tallahassee. No new asks. Just maintain what we have and hope for the best.

That's a departure from how this usually works, where council members bring wish lists of projects and programs they'd like to see funded.

Despite Gurtis pumping the brakes, other council members stuck with traditional priority lists. And there was way more agreement than usual.

Top priorities mentioned by multiple members:

Tree canopy restoration - Pretty much everyone mentioned this after the hurricanes decimated the urban forest. Council Member Gabbard specifically called out accelerating the tree program, and Council Member Driscoll noted that Pinellas County just reduced tree removal requirements, meaning St. Pete needs to plant even more to compensate.

Fire Station 2 and training facilities - Multiple members asking for this. Chief Watson confirmed construction starts soon with a 426-day build time, targeting April/May 2027 completion. Council Member Driscoll also pushed hard for the fire drill grounds, which she's been asking about since 2018.

Complete streets and pedestrian safety - Mentioned by at least four council members. This comes as e-bike safety is becoming a major issue (more on that in a minute).

Paving roads - Council Member Driscoll: "I have been on dirt roads in Pasco County that are smoother than some of the main streets in our city." Council Member Harding specifically mentioned Shore Acres roads got hammered by flooding.

Digital water meters - Strong support from multiple members to accelerate the program from five years to three years. Vice Chair Floyd said he's not scared to move away from the 50/50 cash-to-debt split because "we need to give people real-time data so they can feel confident about utility billing."

Affordable housing - Every single council member mentioned some aspect of this. Council Member Vic Sanders wants funding for teens aging out of foster care. Council Member Gibbons wants more money for eviction prevention. Council Member Gabbard wants Penny for Pinellas land acquisition maintained.

Youth programs - Boys & Girls Club came through with receipts during the meeting: 100% high school graduation rate, 82% reading at grade level, 99% staying out of trouble with law enforcement. Their $250K city investment generated $2.5 million in community impact. Council unanimously approved continued funding.

Quirky/specific asks:

This got tense.

The Budget, Finance & Taxation Committee debated whether to increase the city's "credit facility" for affordable housing projects from $5M to $10M using the Economic Stability Fund.

The background: In 2021, council created a system where the city can make loans from the Economic Stability Fund (which is supposed to be for emergencies and disasters) to bridge financing gaps on affordable housing projects. Three loans are outstanding totaling $4.5M. About $1M remains available. They want to increase the cap to $10M to fund the Ramos project—101 townhomes near the Pinellas Trail, with a third of units at 80% AMI.

The tension: Is the Economic Stability Fund an emergency fund or an affordable housing bank?

Council Member Harding laid out the philosophical problem: "We created the fund as a backstop of last resort. During the 2024 hurricanes, we didn't touch it for what it was intended for—we borrowed money instead. Either recognize it's truly a fund of last resort and don't touch it at all, or just do away with it and deploy all $30M to do something good today."

Council Member Driscoll: "At $5M, I can live with that. But when you ask to double that, I don't feel like this is the right place to be looking."

Vice Chair Hanowitz asked pointed questions about procedure: Why is affordable housing using emergency funds when there are other affordable housing funding sources? What's the framework? Where are the guardrails?

Amy Foster from Housing explained: "All of our other funding sources have restrictions that don't work for this project. HOME funds have Davis-Bacon requirements. CDBG can't be used for homeownership. SHIP has different AMI limits. This is our last resort ask."

Chair Gurtis got fired up (it's his district): "I don't understand why we're not sprinting to get this done. This is 80% AMI ownership on three and four bedroom units. This is families we're putting into homes using the number one wealth-building tool there is. We just passed a resolution about 80% AMI. This IS that."

The vote: 4-0 to move it forward to full council. But Council Member Driscoll requested a one-on-one before the full vote to see if she can get to yes. Translation: It's going to be a conversation.

Why this matters: The city has 14 affordable housing funding requests totaling over $80M right now. Developers want to build here. That's good. But it's creating pressure on limited funding sources. The question is whether emergency funds should become a regular part of that equation.

Tallahassee update (Legislative Affairs Committee):

One Community Grocery Co-op approved (HERS Committee):

Billing & Collections getting evaluated (BFT Committee):

Wednesday showed the reality St. Pete is facing: The city needs to plan a budget while Tallahassee holds a knife over property tax revenue. Council members are split between "keep investing in what we need" and "hunker down for the storm."

Some things are clear:

The mayor's recommended budget is due July 15. Public hearings happen in September. The final FY 2027 budget gets adopted for October 1.

Between now and then, council will watch Tallahassee, refine priorities, fight about funding sources, and try to figure out how to maintain services while preparing for potential major revenue losses.

Just another budget season in local government. Except this time with way higher stakes.

We're building something new and this poll closes soon. Pick the one feature you'd actually pay for—local discounts, event calendar, data packs, or something tighter. Whatever wins, we build. Whatever loses, maybe never happens. Your vote = your upgrade. Takes 3 seconds.

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We couldn't dig up anything that happened specifically on February 2 in St. Pete history — if you know of something, hit reply and let us know!

In the meantime, here's a random cool St. Pete fact: The Vinoy Park Hotel (now the Vinoy Renaissance Resort) was built in 1925 for $3.5 million and featured the first golf course in St. Petersburg. During World War II, it was converted into a training center and officer quarters for the U.S. military. After the war, it fell into disrepair and sat abandoned through the 1970s and '80s before a $93 million renovation brought it back to life in 1992. Today, it's one of the city's most iconic landmarks — and proof that even St. Pete's fanciest buildings have seen some rough times.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ AMAZING!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, do better
⭐️ You didn't bring the heat