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Guest post by Gloria Guillo
Coral Springs, Florida — At a time when our country is facing a $40 trillion national debt, high prices and rising energy costs, and our state had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in the first half of the year, Coral Springs voters are seeking representatives who will hold the tax bill in check while still funding police, firefighters and needed services.
This is a high-stakes balancing act that can only be accomplished through the re-election of Mayor Scott Brook, followed by Bill Capplis for City Commission Seat 3 and Jennifer Levi for City Commission Seat 4. Early voting runs Monday, October 19 through Sunday, November 1, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
This slate will hold the tax line, while protecting police, fire, and other public services that residents use.
Scott Brook, Mayor
Mayor Brook was first elected to the City Commission in 2002, served as Mayor from 2006 to 2010, and returned to the Mayor’s chair in 2019. He is a family-law and estate-planning attorney and running on public safety, low taxes, small-business growth, mental-health access, and expanding the commercial tax base so homeowners do not shoulder an ever-growing share of city costs. The Coral Springs Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 87 has endorsed him, as has the Broward County AFL-CIO.
The strongest case for Brook is fiscal. The city administration proposed raising the operating millage from 6.0232 to 6.3132 in part to support the development of a new Sportsplex facility – a project that comes with a $100 million price tag. Brook opposed the increase, citing the pressure already facing family budgets. Commissioners ultimately kept the rate at 6.0232.
This does not mean residents received a tax freeze. The taxable assessed value of the average homesteaded property rose about 2.7 percent, while fire, solid-waste, and stormwater assessments also increased. The owner of an average single-family home is expected to pay roughly $106 more to the city next year, bringing the total to about $3,140.
The final 6.0232 millage rate also remains 4.77 percent above the rolled-back rate of 5.7487. Under Florida’s Truth in Millage system, that is still treated as a tax increase even though the printed millage rate did not rise. That distinction matters because Coral Springs is approaching a period when every new spending commitment will compete directly with basic services.
Coral Springs’ fiscal 2027 budget, adopted September 23, set the general fund at about $201.6 million with police near $75 million and EMS near $20 million. Parks, drainage, roads, recreation, and the rest of city government must be funded from what remains.
The homestead amendment on the same ballot makes these choices even sharper. City estimates project a loss of approximately $14.55 million annually in the first phase and about $26.85 million once fully implemented. Brook has warned that a cut of that size would put pressure on city services. This is not an argument for higher taxes now. It is an argument for restraint before revenue disappears.
If police and fire are going to remain the last service cut, then City Commissioners must be willing to say “No” elsewhere first—to unnecessary consultants, duplicated programs, and large capital wish-list projects that taxpayers cannot comfortably support. A city cannot spend freely during good years and then discover fiscal discipline only when officers, firefighters, drainage, and road maintenance are already competing for fewer dollars.
Brook offers voters more than a campaign promise on this issue. When the administration proposed raising the millage, he opposed it. In a year when Coral Springs is weighing major capital spending against the possibility of a significant reduction in property-tax revenue, that vote matters.
Bill Capplis, City Commission Seat 3
For City Commission Seat 3, Bill Capplis brings 26 years of experience with the Coral Springs Police Department. He currently serves in the Community Involvement Unit and plans to retire from the force this fall. He raised two daughters in Coral Springs and coached soccer at Coral Springs Charter School. Capplis has campaigned on responsible use of taxpayer money, keeping parks open, maintaining infrastructure, and supporting public safety.
That combination gives voters something unusually concrete: a candidate who has spent nearly three decades inside one of the city’s largest and most essential departments while campaigning on fiscal restraint outside it. His supporters include Coral Springs FOP Lodge 87, Metro Broward Professional Firefighters Local 3080, the Broward County Police Benevolent Association, Commissioner Joe McHugh, and former mayor Vince Boccard.
Jennifer Levi, City Commission Seat 4
Jennifer Levi offers a different kind of experience in Seat 4. A Coral Springs resident since 2014 and mother of three, Levi describes herself as a “mom on a mission” rather than a career politician. Her work before entering the race centered on neighborhood issues and advocacy for children with special needs, including her autistic, nonverbal son.
Levi has made public safety central to her campaign. Her platform includes adequate staffing and equipment for police, fire, and EMS; cutting waste from the budget; keeping taxes as low as service demands allow; addressing traffic; protecting green space; and resisting development that overwhelms existing roads and neighborhoods. Her campaign brings a resident’s perspective to the same question running through the mayoral and Seat 3 races: how to preserve the services people depend on without continually expanding the burden on homeowners. Levi has been endorsed by Commissioner Joe McHugh and former mayors Vince Boccard and Jeanne Mills.
Conclusion
In a time of economic pressure at the national level, Coral Springs needs elected officials with community-centered values and conservative fiscal views. It needs to fund officers and firefighters, maintain parks, roads and drainage, hold the millage rate flat, and even seek rollback rates when feasible. It needs to evaluate all new projects against what will be cut or delayed to pay for them, and it needs to identify solid revenue streams to offset related development and maintenance costs. Overall, capital projects must be scrutinized before they become permanent obligations. Homeowners can no longer afford to bankroll the city’s cost overruns and make up for revenue shortfalls.
For voters focused on spending control while preserving police, fire, and essential city services, the slate presented here is Scott Brook for Mayor, Bill Capplis for City Commissioner Seat 3, and Jennifer Levi for City Commissioner Seat 4.
