|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
City officials mull over tight budget
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008 |
LARGO – By raising property tax rates next year by about 20 cents per $1,000 of taxable value, the city could save more than $1 million over the next five years.
City commissioners had no ideas on where to further cut the city’s proposed $143.4 million budget for 2009 during a work session Aug. 12. That spending total is about $21 million more than the current budget, yet reflects a shortfall of nearly $2 million in city operating expenses cut by state mandates. The city has already begun service and personnel cuts to make up for that shortage.
Amy Davis, assistant to the city manager, said some $3 million was pared from the first draft completed in January.
“For the most part we have kept city services intact,” Davis said of the proposed budget.
During the budget work session, the proposed budget received a nod from the commission’s Finance Advisory Board. S.P. Singh, the advisory board chairman, told commissioners that his agency found no areas in the budget that could be pared. He praised the city for having sought resident input on the budget by holding public meetings last winter without commissioners taking part in the meetings.
Davis said the meetings helped the city staff in understanding what services were most important to maintain at current or improved levels.
Commissioners reviewed the proposed budgets for six city departments during the Aug. 12 meeting, leaving seven to be reviewed at the second scheduled work session Aug. 14. It has also set the stage for another showdown among commissioners on the proposed tax rate to support the 2009 budget.
Last month Commissioners Mary Gray Black and Rodney Woods argued for a budget lower than passed by the commission. The majority approved a “ceiling” rate of 3.84 mills slightly higher than the current rate of 3.65 mills Black and Woods wanted.
This week Davis said that if the lower rate were adopted, the city would have to cut $5 million from its projected budgets for the next five years. The higher tax rate would force cuts totaling $3.7 million, she said.
Davis said the city has cut 15 full time jobs to reduce the proposed budget. Also cut is the city’s “Civilian Emergency Response Team” made up of volunteers trained to respond to catastrophes. Fire Chief Mike Wallace explained that the idea, funded initially by federal grants, “was a good idea” but endangered civilians when “with the push of a button I can have 300 people (trained professionals) here in a half hour.”
Wallace said that Florida cities and counties have worked together for seven years developing an emergency response network that resulted in well-planned response teams for any catastrophe that might arise, such as a major hurricane.
Public hearings on the new budget that takes effect Oct. 1 will be held in September.
|
Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Tampa Bay Newspapers
9911 Seminole Blvd.
Seminole, FL 33772
(727) 397-5563
Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
|
|
