Maitland City Talk

The budget year ahead

Maitland's commitment to our taxpayers is evident in our support of keeping our millage rate one of the lowest in Florida and not increasing taxes that would further burden our families in tough economic times. Further, our overall taxes have declined over the past two years, which has resulted in a tax decrease to our residents.

Revenues

That's the good news. The challenge is that decreased assessments puts pressure on our City's ability to be able to provide a balanced budget year after year. Combined with a number of other factors, this year represents the 'perfect storm' in relation to balanced budgeting.

The impacts of Amendment 1 where residents are able to 'port' their tax breaks and are able to receive an additional $25,000 exemption has put further pressure on Maitland's ability to balance our budget.

As a result of these impacts, along with the 10 percent annual cap on non-homestead or commercial properties, which make up nearly 70 percent of ad valorem taxes in our City, Maitland expects an 8 percent decline in ad valorem revenues in 2011.

In addition, State Shared Revenues, which include sales tax, communication service tax and state revenue sharing, are all expected to either decline or remain flat during fiscal year 2011, with the communication service tax declining to 2002 levels.

Interest Income has taken a hit for the past several years and is expected to continue to decline in the foreseeable future. City revenues with respect to investments represent about a 40 percent average decline in the past three years.

An interesting decline in revenue comes through reductions in Court Fine Revenues. Although the City has some control over citations issued, actual sentencing is out of our hands. fiscal year 2010 revenues are expected to come in at just under 40 percent of fiscal year 2009 actual receipts, with no gain projected in fiscal year 2011.

Expenditures

I would hope that our saving grace would be a corresponding decline in government expenditures, but just as we deal with declining revenues, there is upward pressure with expenses in many areas. Get ready, sky-rocketing health insurance costs are nearly a certainty. Maitland will experience a 10 percent increase in costs associated with health insurance to City employees.Poor market conditions associated with a downturn in the economy have temporarily had a negative impact on pension obligations; however, based on recent improvements in investments, this is primarily a short term situation and only impacts a percentage of the City's current workforce.As we face the realities of decreasing revenues and increasing expenses, the City has little ability to hire new employees, and in fact, when employees leave, the City has chosen not to replace them. Maitland currently has 14 of 215 positions currently frozen and unfunded, which puts our City's current staffing at fiscal year 2006 levels.

Over the years, every City of Maitland department has been directed to reduce their operating budget in order to achieve more efficient operations. Travel and training has been either reduced, brought on site, or eliminated entirely. Office supplies, uniforms, printing, dues, publications and other similar expense line items have been reduced or eliminated.

Our future

There is no question our City will be able to leverage our revenues in much the same way we did with Minnehaha Park and our acquisition of a new radio system. But, although this is a good short-term solution, what happens when the one-time grant money pots dry up? How will our City be able to respond?

Project and program prioritization will be crucial as the City must position itself to do less with less. Our fiscal year 2011 strategic plan will be framed around the concept of sustainability – to meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations' abilities to meet their own needs.

I have every confidence through the diligence of our great staff, working in unison with an involved City Council and with residents throughout our community, that we will not only balance our fiscal year 2011 budget, but will be better positioned to deal with anything that might be thrown at us in the future.