Budget Explorer · City of Tampa

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Tampa, 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, 2023. City of Tampa's own FY2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 398K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$1.45B

$3,638 per resident

Total spending

$1.85B

$4,634 per resident

Spending per resident

$4,634

61st percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$1.37B

$3,448 per resident · 41st percentile of 70

Own-source share

86%

73rd percentile of 71

Capital share

22%

70th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$1.45B 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$302M21%
General sales tax$65M5%
Selective sales taxes$87M6%
License & other taxes$78M5%
Federal aid$65M4%
State & local aid$111M8%
Charges & fees$368M25%
Interest, fines, other$178M12%
Utility revenue$194M13%

Own-source share of general revenue 86% · federal aid 5% · property tax is 57% of taxes

Where it goes

$1.85B 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.

General government$570M31%
Environment & housing$435M24%
Public safety$365M20%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$236M13%
Culture & recreation$107M6%
Transportation$85M5%
Interest on debt$46M2%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Financial administration	General government	$268M	$2.0M	$270M
General (unallocable)	General government	$177M	$82M	$259M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$119M	$117M	$236M
Police protection	Public safety	$205M	$4.6M	$210M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$123M	$77M	$200M
Fire protection	Public safety	$137M	$4.3M	$141M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$74M	$33M	$107M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$99M	$5.1M	$104M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$55M	$24M	$79M
Highways	Transportation	$38M	$19M	$57M
Natural resources	Environment & housing	$20M	$33M	$53M
Parking	Transportation	$23M	$1.6M	$24M
General public buildings	General government	$18M	—	$18M
Central staff services	General government	$17M	—	$17M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+30% over 2 yrs

$1.11B → $1.45B

Spending

+28% over 2 yrs

$1.44B → $1.85B

Debt outstanding

+48% over 2 yrs

$931M → $1.37B

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.

Measure	City of Tampa	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$4,634	$3,741	61st	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$3,638	$3,548	53rd	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,336	$1,328	51st	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$3,448	$3,865	41st	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	86%	81%	73rd	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	5%	7%	36th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	22%	18%	70th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	2%	4%	23rd	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.95×	1.05×	42nd	more leveraged

About this data

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.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 122057161633 (Tampa 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.

Adopted budget · FY2026

City of Tampa's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 36 departments.

$2.52B total

Water$561M22%
Wastewater$315M12%
Police$263M10%
Non Departmental$232M9%
Fire$192M8%
Human Resources & Talent Development$155M6%
Solid Waste & Environmental Program Management$153M6%
Parks & Recreation$90M4%
Community Redevelopment Agency$87M3%
Transportation$79M3%
Parking$65M3%
Stormwater Engineering$50M2%
All other (24)$280M11%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 2-37) — all funds, gross of transfers between departments.
Tampa's ordinance adopts the mayor's budget by reference without a dollar table, so the only department-level figures the city publishes are labelled 'Recommended'. They are the adopted amounts, but the label is the city's.
Departmental totals are gross: transfers between city funds are counted in both the sending and receiving department, so the sum is larger than the city's own net all-funds figure.
Tampa publishes no grand total for this schedule, so unlike every other place here the figures could not be checked against a printed total.
Source: FY2026 Schedule of Revenues and Expenses by Department (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

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