Article Highlights:
–The City of Tallahassee has given $1,716,236 total credits to both Leon County Schools and Department of Transportation; there could be more as this was a sample set.
-The city gave these credits after our request was placed.
-Other Government Buildings are not paying their utility bills.
On August 4th 2025, we placed a request for the current bills at Department of Transportation at Hayden Burns Building, the Federal Correctional Institute, and Leon County Schools. At the end of September, we received the utility bills. Everything looked fairly accurate except for one thing; we placed our request in August, and these bills were for September.
So, we reached out to the city and asked for the bills from August as this was at the time of our original request. They responded with those bills.
State Department of Transportation Bill
The State Department of Transportation September bills revealed that they did not have any past due amount… but the August bills revealed a different situation. They owed $424,305 and based off “current charges” they typically are charged about $41,500. This means they were about ten months past due. Under the August 8th bill the city received $40,030 in payment. But there is an item designated as Adjustments -342,685. This brought the bill down to $41,500 which was then paid and reflected on the September bill.
Leon County School Bill
Leon County Schools also received a significant “adjustment” and not just for fire services. Their September Bill was similar to the State Department of Transportation. However, their August bills were a different situation. We requested select Utility bills (high schools) as there are many Leon County Schools bills. This however showed us a pattern across all the bills.
- $398,411 credit
- $169,838 credit
- $423,230 credit
- $382,072 credit
- Total Credits given to Leon County Schools: $1,373,551
This is not even the total credits given across all of Leon County Schools. Again, we do not know the intention for the credit forgiveness and the timing of such. We do know that the impact leaves us feeling more distrust for our local government. It feels manipulative for them to forgive the August bills and then send us the September bills reflecting payment.
Leon County Schools is still receiving their discount despite not paying their fire service fees. Leon County Schools also has a budgeted line item for utility bills, yet they haven’t been paying their utility bills. This draws more concern around their governance of our finances dedicated to the district. A district that has over-crowded classrooms, limited resources for our students, underpaid support staff, educators, and bus drivers.
The Adjustments
We found the reason for adjustments in the bill as a designation of “billing corrections,” “stormwater non-res correction,” and “fire city GOV correction.” However, these are extremely broad designations for credits on accounts and are not an accurate breakdown of the reason for credits. When we placed a public records request for any records that include the breakdown of the credits applied, we were told that none exist (even in email communication form with the agencies), and the breakdown is on the bill. This raises concerns around the City Manager’s ability to keep complete records and financial ledgers of our public money. Given the large amount of utility bills being forgiven we believe that good financial stewardship maintains records that accurately reflect the reason for the bill forgiveness; especially this large of forgiveness.
Federal Correctional Institute Bill
Federal Correctional Institute was behind on payments and owed $509,193 in August. The September Bill reveals they have paid down about half that amount in August and have a remaining balance of $343,715. If each bill for this building is around $166,000 they are about 4 months behind on their payment. We do not know if the city only requested payment because of our request, but we do find it concerning that according to the August bill no payments were made and then in September half the amount due was received.
While many working families are struggling to keep their lights on, the city is allowing large utility accounts to go unpaid. Furthermore, upon request of these bills there are millions of dollars in credits given to the delinquent accounts after a public records request was placed.
We have a right and an obligation to ensure our local government is working for us and not against us. This isn’t a private business; this is public money and public assets. Holding city executives and leadership accountable is our public responsibility.
We are better together, and we deserve full financial transparency and a city government that respects our hard-working neighbors.
