Summati
THE
n Weekly USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C om mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n ta Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 17, No. 39
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
October 4, 2017
1 Section, 8 Pages
Where Does the Money Go? An Analysis of Pensacola’s 2018 Budget
By Tanner Yea
At the end of July, Mayor Ashton Hayward revealed the proposed 2018 fiscal budget for the City of Pensacola. The city council met on August 1 and 2 to hold private discussions concerning the budget, but September will see two public hearings—one on September 13 and the final on September 20. According to Florida law, the budget must be passed before the end of the fiscal year, which falls on October 1. The proposed budget is notable for a few reasons, but the stand-out reason being it is the largest budget since 2012. At $226.6 million, it is $8.7 million higher than last year’s budget. Comparatively, the budget for 2012 amounted to $222.1 million. Around $215 million of this budget will be paid by taxes and revenue, while the remaining $11.6 million will come out of various city reserves. The city’s millage rate—which is the amount per $1,000 used to calculate property tax—will continue to stay at 4.2895, which hasn’t changed since 2012. The budget has received significant criticism, as some believe the money will not be allocated well. One critic is Councilwoman Sherri Myers, representative of District 2— which includes Cordova Mall, Sacred Heart Hospital, and a large variety of businesses, restaurants and urban communities. “The budget isn’t binding, the mayor can move around the money how he wants once the budget is passed. There’s a lack of oversight and transparency,” said Myers. “I’m also concerned about the bargain made with the LOST fund.” LOST stands for ‘local option sales tax’, a tax imposed on a city or county level instead of a state or
federal level. 2018’s proposed budget has about $13 million going to LOST, a nearly $5 million increase from last year. These funds are used to purchase ‘capital equipment’, such as police cars, fire engines and other similar equipment. Other notable budget shifts include a $948,800 decrease in funds for the port, a $1.353 million decrease in the Community Redevelopment Agency, and a $469,000 increase in the Urban Core Redevelopment Trust—a general infrastructure improvement fund that covers most of the downtown area. In addition, the Section 8 federal housing assistance program funding is down $849,000, and general governmental funding is down $279,000. Funding towards Maritime Park and its various programs has increased $524,300. The overall budget shows a general increase in funding for most divisions, with a continued focus on growing downtown. One organization receiving funds from the budget is the Florida West Economic Development Alliance, the economic development organization for Pensacola and Escambia County. FloridaWest is dedicated to building, growing and sustaining the economic potential and prosperity of communities, businesses and individuals in our
Northwest Florida region by drawing new industry to the region, working with existing business on workforce needs and operating CO:LAB, a business incubator. “We’ve just come off of a recession, and the city, with the leadership of Mayor Hayward, has seen tremendous growth. All the construction and building shows a new demand for it,” said Scott Luth, CEO of FloridaWest. “That kind of growth requires an increase in funding (for the city), which is great. It shows that more people have invested in Pensacola.” FloridaWest is funded through non-departmental agency funding and has received a steady funding of $150,000 a year for the past five years. Luth said these funds account for FloridaWest membership dues for the city, and much of their funding comes from outside agencies. “We don’t have any plans for asking for increases from public funds, but we are going to increase private funding. We’ve always requested level funding from public sources,” said Luth. Other institutions have steady budgets, such as the Lakeview Center, which gains $20,000 a year, and the Council on Aging, which gains $70,000 a year. Mayor Hayward said that his budget tries to find a balance be-
tween enhanced services to taxpayers and completing them in costeffective ways to combat increased spending. “My fiscal year 2018 budget proposal reflects this new reality,” said Hayward in a statement delivered by Public Information Officer Vernon Stewart. “I am proposing a budget that will keep us on the right trajectory by emphasizing improvements to the delivery of our core services and continuing the progress we have made in improving and maintaining our infrastructure.” Councilwoman Myers said that the budget approval process itself has not been clear and orderly, and this has resulted in the city council not having an adequate amount of time to discuss changes. She also argues that certain sections of the city are getting more attention, with the north end of Pensacola not getting its fair share of the budget. “The mayor didn’t seemingly plan for us to have a budget workshop, and the only reason we had it was because I had insisted upon it. The workshop agenda was not put together well, the council hadn’t even discussed our own budget, and the budget was given to us late,” said Myers. “It’s a moral issue. The money is not their money - it’s the taxpayer’s money, and I
don’t like the way the decisions are made to use that money.” The budget needs a simple fourperson majority of the seven-member city council in order to pass, but it must be passed in some form before the fiscal year begins on October 1. “My administration has shown that it is possible to meaningfully rein in spending by addressing the growing cost of government,” said Mayor Hayward in his statement. “By differentiating between wants and needs and then further deciding which needs have the greatest priority, we have saved money where it needed to be saved and spent money where it needed to be spent. Now we intend to show that this model is sustainable over the long term.” Both detractors and supporters of the budget will have a chance to speak at the two public hearings on September 13 and September 20. Both will be held at 5:30 pm at City Hall, and used to discuss both the budget and the continued millage rate. To view 2018’s proposed budget – both in brief and in detail – visit http://www.ci.pensacola.fl.us/archive. There you can also find the city’s budgets dating back to 2004.