Maitland City Talk

As we are painfully aware, many communities are facing increases in taxes as a result of a challenging economy. Maitland has succeeded in balancing our budget, even though revenues continue to plummet and, as a result, Maitland has been able to present a plan that protects our quality of life without negatively impacting our taxpayers.

Maitland works diligently throughout the year to identify opportunities to reduce expenditures in anticipation of reducing revenues. But in addition, we look for every opportunity to leverage revenues in order to move capital projects forward prior to when they would be expected.

This is an effort that lasts for the entire fiscal year, and begins with strategic planning where essential priorities are agreed upon by both City Council and staff. Consensus on priorities is what allows Maitland’s department heads to move forward with programs that they know will be supported by the Council.

Essential priorities this past fiscal year have included the construction and completion of public buildings, including a new fire station and city hall. Development and re-master planning efforts for both our downtown and west side have also been key priorities. In addition, promoting green city initiatives, parks expansion and completing changes to our comprehensive plan have all been part of the aggressive strategic plan for our city.

Since I have been mayor, our city’s operating millage has not changed significantly, even though our property tax revenues have been plummeting year after year. In addition, our overall budget has been reduced by nearly 7 percent, indicating diligence and success with reducing expenditures. Today, Maitland has a total of 22 unfunded or frozen positions, up from 12 just one short year ago, which means we have been able to reduce expenditures without layoffs.

Maitland is diligent in seeking out automatic increases in contracts and policies. Since for the last two years, no Maitland employee has had a base pay increase, it stands to reason that Council should not receive an increase either. As a result, the policy that automatically increases our Council’s pay was overridden in this budget. Also, many utility contracts have automatic increases in their agreements. In every case possible, our Council has demanded no increases in these contracts in order to further protect our taxpayers.

Other changes in operations have included greater efficiencies in our vehicle fleet, privatization of athletic programs, elimination of nearly all travel expenses, taking advantage of an increased volunteer workforce, creating administrative efficiencies and supporting the merger of two cultural partners. Together, all of the aforementioned efforts, along with many others, have resulted in our ability to be able to deliver a balanced budget.

And finally, since our city has committed to economic development and job creation throughout the year, we have succeeded in delivering many projects over the course of the last two years that have resulted in the protection and creation of thousands of jobs and the addition of many significant projects such as Fidelity Information Services and the Village at Lake Lily Phase II.

This commitment to keeping projects moving forward, along with diligent planning throughout the year, and a committed and passionate city of Maitland staff, are the main reasons that Maitland is so well-positioned financially to meet the economic challenges of the future.