Budget Explorer · City of Bradenton

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Bradenton, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Sep 30, 2021. City of Bradenton's own FY2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 60K residents

Total revenue

$115M

$1,924 per resident

Total spending

$90M

$1,499 per resident

Spending per resident

$1,499

4th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$46M

$773 per resident · 8th percentile of 70

Own-source share

82%

56th percentile of 71

Capital share

10%

19th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$115M total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

  • Property tax$27M24%
  • Selective sales taxes$8.8M8%
  • License & other taxes$5.1M4%
  • Federal aid$1.6M1%
  • State & local aid$17M15%
  • Charges & fees$37M32%
  • Interest, fines, other$5.0M4%
  • Utility revenue$14M12%

Own-source share of general revenue 82% · federal aid 2% · property tax is 66% of taxes

Where it goes

$90M total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

  • Public safety$29M32%
  • General government$23M25%
  • Utilities (water, power, gas)$18M21%
  • Environment & housing$11M12%
  • Transportation$3.7M4%
  • Culture & recreation$3.5M4%
  • Interest on debt$1.7M2%
Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸
FunctionCategoryOperatingCapitalTotal
Police protectionPublic safety$19M$50K$19M
Water utilityUtilities (water, power, gas)$18M$18M
General (unallocable)General government$3.1M$8.3M$11M
Fire protectionPublic safety$9.8M$97K$9.9M
Solid waste managementEnvironment & housing$8.2M$8.2M
Financial administrationGeneral government$7.9M$7.9M
Parks & recreationCulture & recreation$3.3M$224K$3.5M
Central staff servicesGeneral government$2.9M$2.9M
HighwaysTransportation$2.3M$473K$2.8M
Natural resourcesEnvironment & housing$1.7M$1.7M
Housing & community developmentEnvironment & housing$1.1M$1.1M
ParkingTransportation$890K$890K
Judicial & legalGeneral government$268K$268K

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

MeasureCity of BradentonCohort medianPercentileHigher means
Spending per resident$1,499$3,741
4th
more spent per resident
Revenue per resident$1,924$3,548
4th
more raised per resident
Taxes per resident$686$1,328
8th
heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident$773$3,865
8th
more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue82%81%
56th
less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue2%7%
13th
more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending10%18%
19th
more building, less operating
Interest share of spending2%4%
15th
more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue0.40×1.05×
12th
more leveraged
  • Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
  • The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
  • Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
  • This place is sampled only in Census of Governments years (every five years). Latest available: FY2022.
  • Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 122081194764 (Bradenton City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

City of Bradenton's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 35 funds.

$229M total
  • General Fund$73M32%
  • Water - Sewer$31M14%
  • Local Provider Participation$20M9%
  • BPDHQ Series 2024 Construction$15M7%
  • Downtown CRA$15M6%
  • Self-Insurance - Medical$12M5%
  • Solid Waste Operations$12M5%
  • Infrastructure$6.3M3%
  • Half Cent Infrastructure Fund$6.1M3%
  • Central CRA$5.0M2%
  • Capital Improvement Fund$5.0M2%
  • Tamiami Trail CRA$4.4M2%
  • All other (23)$23M10%
  • Parsed from the city's two-page adopted budget, whose funds sum exactly to its printed total of $229,475,196.
  • By fund only. Bradenton publishes no department breakdown for FY2026; its most recent department-level budget book is for FY2021-22.
  • The column combines revenues and appropriations, so the total is gross: it counts transfers between funds and includes the self-insurance funds.
  • Bradenton's FY2026-27 budget had not been adopted when this was captured; its fiscal year begins October 1.
  • Source: Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-13. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Bradenton's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Bradenton capacity assessment.

The Civic Infrastructure Diagnostic Framework’s structural elements — the four cluster labels, the six capacity dimensions, and the binding-constraint framing — are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Anyone may use or adapt them with attribution. Tool implementation and full article text © 2026 JTV Advisory LLC.