Winter Park budget may slow undergrounding

A Winter Park program that runs power lines underground to make electric services more reliable would receive a 10-percent funding cut in the proposed city budget for the next fiscal year, which is raising concerns whether that small step could lead to further cuts in electric services to keep property taxes down.

City Commissioners voted on the tentative millage rate July 22, holding the line at last year’s rate of 4.0923 mills.

But Utility Advisory Board chairman and Winter Park resident Greg Seidel spoke out during the meeting, concerned about an item in the city’s proposed budget that would transfer the cost of street lighting to the electric utility, which could hold up the city’s undergrounding program that receives funding from excess cash flow.

“The reason I don’t think that’s appropriate is that it’s always been set with the electric utility that whatever profits were made would be utilized for the undergrounding program, and now we’re taking profits from the electric and subsidizing a city service,” Seidel said.

Seidel noted that his street is at the bottom of the list of areas set for undergrounding, and that the cut would only push him back further.

The 10-percent cut in funding that would go toward street lighting comes out to nearly $500,000, or about a half-mile’s worth of undergrounding.

The cut would only be a small piece of the 14 to 15 year project, but Seidel brought up the bigger picture, raising questions of what else could be cut in order to keep property taxes down.

“If we switch the street lights over, what’s next?” Seidel said. “We charge electric bills to the city buildings, we charge them to the parks and all over the city.”

“In order to balance the budget, are we going to be doing that on the back of the electric bill?”

City Manager Randy Knight said that is not the city’s intent.

“The street lights are part of an electric system, so it’s very common for municipal-owned utilities to pay for street lights out of their electric utility,” Knight said.

“I don’t see this being a pattern of more and more things being shifted to the utility.”

Commissioners said it wasn’t necessary to raise taxes, and that a great deal of work could still be done with the remaining funding.

“I, for one, think we can provide great work, do some undergrounding and not raise taxes, personally,” Mayor Ken Bradley said.

Seidel said he would willing to pay the higher property tax that comes with a higher millage rate to make sure that the undergrounding program continues as quickly as possible.

The comment sparked a discussion among the Commissioners as to what residents are willing to pay higher property taxes for.

“I don’t know what our citizens are or aren’t willing to pay more money for,” Bradley said. “They may love to be taxed to have their trees trimmed, or they may not. They may love their taxes to go up so we can get a raise, or they may not. It would be interesting if those things could be individually voted on by our citizens.”

Winter Park’s millage rate currently ranks as the third lowest in all of Orange County, and the city is doing its best to keep it at a competitive rate while being aware of what residents are willing and unwilling to pay taxes for, Knight said.

“What Mr. Seidel brings up is a very valid point, and is one of the reasons that we have a community-owned electric system, so the community can speak out about how the rates are used,” Knight said.

“For the number of people who would be willing to pay more in taxes, there’s also a lot of people that don’t want to pay any more taxes. That’s always a struggle that any elected body has is what’s that balance of how much people are willing to pay and to the point that it’s hurting people.”

The tentative millage rate and the proposed budget are set to go before the Commission for final approval in September.