‘Difficult decisions’: St. Pete faces $18M budget gap

City council members have adjusted their spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Most would consider maintaining current service and staff levels a win amid historic budgetary pressures.

St. Petersburg faces a $17.87 million preliminary budget gap, more than double the deficit at this point in fiscal year 2023. Proposed property tax legislation could eliminate $89 million in expected revenue, forcing officials to reduce all non-public safety expenditures by 47% in 2027.

Coworking space coming to Warehouse Arts District

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CFO: St. Pete owes property owners $49 million

Pinellas County deputy arrested for battery

Here’s what DOGE’s ‘audit’ allegedly found in St. Pete

When asked if any positive outcomes resulted from the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) scrutinizing St. Petersburg’s spending, Mayor Ken Welch said, “No, because it wasn’t a true audit.”

Welch, speaking Tuesday night at the State of the Bay forum, had yet to receive a final report on what DOGE allegedly discovered in August 2025. That came Wednesday afternoon, following a press conference-slash-rally from Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia.

Arts Alive! podcast: The UNITED Mural Fest

Public art is our topic for discussion on today’s Arts Alive! podcast. Disheartened by the State’s removal of St. Petersburg’s Black History Matters street mural, artist John Gascot decided to commission a new mural of DEI declaration, outdoors on his own building.

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