A message about the Fiscal Year 2025 budget from Cynthia W. Curry, Gainesville City Manager
Press release from City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Although we face challenges, it is helpful to pause a moment and look back at how far we have come. In the past three years, the City of Gainesville has gone from receiving a Government Services Contribution (GSC) from Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) of $38 million in Fiscal Year 2021, to $36 million in Fiscal Year 2022, to $34 million in Fiscal Year 2023, to just $15.3 million in Fiscal Year 2024. That substantial downward adjustment eliminated approximately 10 percent of our budgeted General Fund revenue.
It is important to note the traditional role of a municipal utility includes serving as a crucial source of funding for its community. That is true across the country. It is why a transfer is part of the shared history of the City and utility, providing supplemental funding for public services such as infrastructure maintenance, fire and police protection, and parks and recreational facilities.
We are a City with a responsibility to its citizenry to provide these services at an acceptable level. The contention that the City of Gainesville should receive no funds from its municipal utility contradicts the purpose of a public utility and goes against standard industry practice.
The only way to deal with that reality is to face it head-on. We are developing a budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 that recognizes this fundamental change at the heart of the City’s longstanding relationship with its utility.
The Fiscal Year 2025 annual budget, still under development, hovers around $155 million. We are building on a three-year pattern of sound fiscal decisions, stabilizing even as we anticipate a further reduction of $6.8 million to the GSC that lowers it from $15.3 million to $8.5 million in Fiscal Year 2025.
A narrative has emerged from the GRU Authority Board that suggests the transfer has been used to give the City more money than the utility earned. Specifically, this analysis undertakes to illustrate that the utility “overpaid” the City of Gainesville by $68 million over the course of several years.
Although GRU has claimed this figure is “verified,” that verification comes only from GRU.
It is important to state the utility’s financial data can be analyzed in a number of ways. Additional information will be shared at the Gainesville City Commission Special Meeting tomorrow, June 18 (1:00 p.m.).
Gainesville City Commission meetings are broadcast on Community 12TV on Cox Channel 12, livestreamed on the City’s website and Facebook page, and archived online. The commission meetings also are streamed on GNV TV through Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.
Sincerely,
Cynthia W. Curry
Gainesville City Manager
I find it interesting that this woman is even the City Manager. With all the crap she left the town down south with…It amazes me that the city would even hire that but then again look at the city commission. This woman either does not know how to budget or just wants to trash wherever she goes. Her lies say last year’s budget was lower when JLAC proved to have risen, and many of us were paying attention to the shell games. So the city manager can quit pulling the wool over the eyes of citizens who don’t believe your mess anymore.
Them Dems put her in a for only 1 reason.
DEI
DEI hire.
Gainesville is full of rejects managing self created chaos. Then complain about working so hard to overcome what they create. Incompetency and woke agendas will do that every time.
Curry has never worked for a living. She has always fed at the government trough. Everything she has done is DEI. She does not believe in equality; she wants more pay for less work, AKA equity, way different than equality. She wants a quota system AKA Affirmative Action, regardless of qualifications. She proved last year she can’t manage a budget. She certainly not qualified to hold a $300,000 a year position.
You fell to talk about taking the 68 million over what GRU brought in over the last 3 years the city commission took. From what i understand GRU is giving the city 15 million year less 6.8 million over the next 10 to get the 68 million dollars back the city took
What GRU contributed was borrowed money, at the cost of an ever increasing debt load. There was no “profit” from GRU for the city to use to supplement the budget.
Total Loser Leadership still in LaLa Land denial. That is the least critical analysis. There are those I’ve heard that supposedly suggest conspiracy , stealing and monetary malpractice.
Im usually against the city (for multiple reasons personal and political), but I believe the city manager has done better than her predecessors going back over a decade. She handles the locals politics between the commission and the city departments very well. She has been very reasonable in dealing with the needs of the commission and needs of the employees. Its a tough spot she is in and I think overall she has done well. This article is her response to the GRU board and is basically saying dont give nothing back to the city. I personally think the transfer should sit at 10 million for many years to come until GRU is at a managable debt, and then it can go up to a compariable amount similar to other municipal utilities.
There should be ZERO transfers as long as they are funded by bonds and additional debt. If GRU issues bonds or has to borrow, the city gets NOTHING.
“It is important to note the traditional role of a municipal utility includes serving as a crucial source of funding for its community.” ~ There’s a big difference in serving as a crucial source and relying on the utility to be the primary source. Anyone with a high school education can understand that.
Maybe her credentials need to be questioned as much as the continued syphoning of GRU profits by the supposedly customer owned utility.
What credentials? She’s never been a city manager. She has no involvement in the city manager association. Look her up.
It really doesn’t matter how the city wants to analyze GRU’s money. Hell the city analyzing GRU’s money in their creative BS ways is part of what got us here and over a billion in debt. The city needs to figure out how to budget without the “extras” that way anything they get from transfers or UF or the state or anywhere else is to fill in. This city also needs to find a city mgr that knows what the hell they are doing preferably one without a failing record even prior to being here. Maybe make the priority their job record and not what they look like or who they know or how they vote
It will take over 50 Years for GRU and Customers to overcome the Gainesville’s Biomass Debacle . That is if the transfer they have abused and over drafted goes to Zero . So get rid of the monkey math , pay GRU back , increase your taxes and enjoy reaping what you have sown Gville . KMA. You will not own GRU for long, but you will own the debt.
And the useful life of a biomass plant like the one here is only 20 to 30 years. Soon it will be a pile of junk to haul away.
$299,000.00 a year. 299k salary a year to Ms Curry for her role as “city manager”, whatever the f that is. Now she writes to explain why gru which was recently the highest cost utility in the state of Florida needs to fund the bloated city budget. Well of course she does!
I don’t recall her offering to forego part of that salary in any effort to maintain city staffing.
Again, a liberal’s hypocrisy goes only so far.
299k? For WHAT? How the Hell are these exorbitant Gubbmint salaries justified? She has a degree in cocktail party conversation from UM and no real experience. DEI all the way.
Conscientious, culpable, restitutional compensation.
That’s probably their rationale.
Yet, this is who the City Commission wants to put in charge of GRU.
The transfer nor GRU should be viewed as a money making operation to fund the City government social programs which the City admin already admitted they used the money for but rather it should only have been an accounting entry.
This entry should account for any percentage of management a City employee has over a utility function. For example; if 5% of the City Manager’s time is spent running the utility then a transfer of the accounting for her salary’s can be warranted. But that’s not what’s happening here.
When elected as a Commissioner in Newberry our transfer was 15%. And we were charging utility customers (voters) and moving money to the general fund (including non-voters). We stopped this almost immediately. And was lowered to about 5% since.
Unlike the Curry, I DON’T think the utility should be thought of as a funding source. Nor do I think it’s common practice. It is a service and should be essentially a non-profit.
What is also rich in her statement is the premise the accounting of the CoG is in a position to be trusted in the first place. Given the deplorable status showcased in the last several audit seasons, that is the last thing we should believe.
I’m sorry. She is lobbying a political position and that’s not where her focus should be.
BTW Newberry has 3 utility companies serving 9000 residents.
Yes, you are essentially describing how split funding lines works for employees. If someone from the city outside of GRU is utilizing X amount of time in support of GRU their salary line would reflect that with a % of their FTE for each (city and GRU), and the 2 different funding sources covering the cost of each and a transfer of funds from GRU to the city would occur to cover GRUs portion of the cost.
Another carpetbagger who couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Gainesville but is all for ripping off it’s citizens of what they own and then thinking they want his advice. This one is admittedly an officer in the far right John Birch Society, so far out they think the Civil War was Lincoln’s fault – is that what they mean by a RINO?
Mind your own business Jack. Newberry is a bedroom community for Gainesville and wouldn’t be building all those new houses and raking in tax dollars if it wasn’t. Picking watermelons isn’t building those streets and paying your salary.
Maybe the fact someone like him can’t get elected in Gainesville is part of your problem?
A left wing waste of oxygen that is too stupid to realize the incompetent degenerates it votes for are the ones that approved all the debt gru has undertaken and for that reason, gru is broke! 1.2 BILLION in debt.
We get it, you left wing wastes bankrupt every entity you are involved in and believe it’s someone else’s problem to pay for your stupidity! Nothing worse than entitled, left wing pieces of excrement!
Agreed! The other city manager who was run out of town, Feldman the “mulch man,” did the same thing. Manage the city and steward its finances and resources over lobbying and carrying the commission’s water! It’s no surprise Feldman got her the job. The commission is lost but the people are not. It’s time for change.
Someone should FOIA how much Feldman got paid AFTER he submitted his resignation when they attempted to hire him back on close to the same day his record was terminated making more money as a consultant than he did as CM. Also what was the timeline before they removed him from the consultant role. Gypsy travelers have nothing on these grifters.
It’s the Governor’s fault, it’s the authority’s fault, it’s UF’s fault. My question is when do we take accountability for what the commission has done wrong financially?
Never do these press releases acknowledge $1.7 billion dollars of debt or any plan to reduce it.
Not going to happen in Gainesville because progressive liberals are great at deflecting. Glad to help.
We’ll see how you handle it Fareed when you get elected. I have some personal experience with you and the fake Police Advisory Council that shows you say things like this to serve your own personal agenda. You will fall in line with the GCC and your mentor Carter. SAIEW…SAIEW.
Lol
Aren’t you just another democrat that will fall in line with all the same crappy democrat policies that have infected Gainesville for the last 100 years?
Who is this fool trying to trick?… truth will always win, Cynthia.
The independent financial/credit analysis and rating by Moody’s says this:
“GRU’s credit profile is constrained by a high leverage (84.3% adjusted debt ratio in fiscal 2021), lack of a debt service reserve requirement, high electric rates and the age of some of its generation assets. High annual transfers to the city’s general fund have limited the utility’s ability to apply material amounts of free cash flow generation toward rate reductions or investments into new generating assets.
Modest annual reductions of $2 million in GRU’s transfer to the city’s general fund for fiscal years 2022-2027 and a debt defeasance plan will increase slightly financial flexibility going forward. However, cost pressures will remain, in particular in a volatile and rising natural gas price environment. In that regard, a key future challenge for GRU and the City will be to develop a plan to meet the City’s self-imposed net zero emission targets by 2045 given a high reliance on natural gas.”
https://www.gru.com/Portals/0/2023%20Updates/Moodys-affirms-GRUs-FL-Aa3-09Feb2023-PR_908011739.pdf
Now, now, we’ve got some nice blame-flinging and name-calling going on here, let’s not dampen the fun with actual facts.
I’d like to respond, too…
City vs. GRU on budget shortfall…
“Although we face challenges, it is helpful to pause a moment and look back at how far we have come. In the past three years, the City of Gainesville has gone from receiving a Government Services Contribution (GSC) from Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) of $38 million in Fiscal Year 2021, to $36 million in Fiscal Year 2022, to $34 million in Fiscal Year 2023, to just $15.3 million in Fiscal Year 2024. That substantial downward adjustment eliminated approximately 10 percent of our budgeted General Fund revenue.”
* why are there revenue “challenges” after years of building luxury student apartment high rises? I know some get tax breaks, but is it for 100% of tax liabilities? Still, those high rises are big new GRU ratepayers, so hasn’t that helped?
“It is important to note the traditional role of a municipal utility includes serving as a crucial source of funding for its community. That is true across the country. It is why a transfer is part of the shared history of the city and utility, providing supplemental funding for public services such as infrastructure maintenance, fire and police protection, and parks and recreational facilities.”
* Do other cities with municipal utilities have biomass plants and related debt burdens? Would converting GRU to a cooperative help, thru a sale or merger?
“We are a city with a responsibility to its citizenry to provide these services at an acceptable level. The contention that the City of Gainesville should receive no funds from its municipal utility contradicts the purpose of a public utility and goes against standard industry practice.”
* I thought the purpose of a municipal utility was to keep rates down, not susceptible to profiteering owners? Plus, GRU is still willing to pay $millions per year, just not as much.
“The only way to deal with that reality is to face it head on. We are developing a budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 that recognizes this fundamental change at the heart of the city’s longstanding relationship with its utility.”
* Then cut trendy extras added in the years since the biomass plant was bought. And stop telling GPD, ACSD, and the courts to be lax on behavioral/criminal repeat offenders … so more taxpayers will move here, pay taxes and GRU bills.
“The Fiscal Year 2025 annual budget, still under development, hovers around $155 million. We are building on a three-year pattern of sound fiscal decisions, stabilizing even as we anticipate a further reduction of $6.8 million to the GSC that lowers it from $15.3 million to $8.5 million in Fiscal Year 2025.”
* Why hasn’t other real estate inflation increased property tax revenues enough, so GRU isn’t only source of budget growth?
“A narrative has emerged from the GRU Authority Board that suggests the transfer has been used to give the city more money than the utility earned. Specifically, this analysis undertakes to illustrate that the utility “overpaid” the City of Gainesville by $68 million over the course of several years. Although GRU has claimed this figure is “verified,” that verification comes only from GRU.”
* Maybe it’s in excess of GRU’s actual profits, that’s why?
Strange for a city manager to issue a “press release.” Will there be a “press conference” with probing questions from the local press next?
This assumption is based the ‘new’ math…..you know….Juneteenth math.
Noticeably absent from Curry is the multi-million dollar tax increase the city has put on the backs of home owners. Also how many new administrators has the city hired under Curry?
Too many.
The same Feldman favorites. Ramos, Persons and Mann. At least they canned the other 3 worthless ACMs including the last one they hired who someone said her husband was a convicted felon. Great screening from HR. She also presented herself as Hispanic but her parents were from Iraq. Another South Florida Curry/Feldman connection.
When you elect clowns, expect a circus…
Remember when the state audit team checked our city finance department. They basically said the department was staffed by dummies.
And, they were correct. However, the head of that financial $hit show somehow survived and is Curry’s queen poobah. Chief something or other.
Ms Curry, three of those years were not a ” crucial role of sharing”; they were an improper way of loading debt on GRU, since they took more than the utility made. They also forced the rates for electricity to the highest in the state.
Since it is the theft of all profit from GRU, it hardly consists of “supplemental funding for public services such as infrastructure maintenance, fire and police protection, and parks and recreational facilities” These are PRIMARY obligations of city government and not to be used to threaten taxpayers for more, or else. You seem incapable of cutting a bloated budget by even a mere 10%.
“We are a City with a responsibility to its citizenry to provide these services at an acceptable level. The contention that the City of Gainesville should receive no funds from its municipal utility contradicts the purpose of a public utility and goes against standard industry practice.” FIRST sentence is true. That’s why you don’t threaten citizens with loss of those PRIMARY services. THE rest of the paragraph is due to the Democrats running the city (Hanrahan, Poe and Harvey Ward) forcing 1.7 BILLION of debt onto GRU over the last 20 years.
Maybe YOU, Ms Curry, can provide ‘verified’ data to present the basis for a different set of information. Of course the source of verification will be needed.
I have to deal with my own budget cuts due to higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher everything. Where’s MY crucial source of funding I can milk for keeping MY finances at an acceptable level?
“ Gainesville City Manager Cynthia Curry questions the “narrative” that GRU overpaid the City by $68 million over several years”???? For real??!!! Liberals are a cancer to the world. City is sucking GRU dry. They don’t have enough money for maintenance because city demonrats want to spend money on wasteful projects.
It’s really not all her fault. The City Commission approves the budget and oversees her. Just vote against any incumbent. The replacement can’t be worse.
She does however need to SHOW why the $68 million that the GRU authority wants to take away from the City is not justified.