Bielarski: Fact or Fiction, Part 6

Letter to the editor

Are elected city leaders such as Commissioner Eastman and Mayor Ward correct in their statements countering the DOGE audit claims?

Just when I thought City Commissioner Bryan Eastman’s rhetoric couldn’t get worse, the Florida DOGE team issued a press release with numbers the Commissioner vociferously refuted in a TikTok video. Worse yet, the Mayor jumped in, in an old school way, expressing two rather confounding statements. Are these City leaders’ claims correct? Is the DOGE press release wrong?  

Claims

1. Responding to questions from DOGE about a Green New Deal, Eastman claims that “Gainesville doesn’t even have a Green New Deal.” 
2. Responding to DOGE press releases stating that the City has increased its expenditures by $90 million per year, Eastman states that “$90 million is one-half of the City’s General Fund,” followed by, “It’s completely absurd.”  
3. Eastman asserts the state’s claim that the City’s property taxes increased by 85% is “equally absurd.”
4. Ward is quoted as saying that he’ll be darned if he found out the City somehow added $90 million a year to its budget.
5. Ward also said, “I would also hope the governor understands the difference between a maximum millage rate and the actual millage rate.”

Facts

Key Point #1: While the City doesn’t have a Green New Deal, it does have an existing resolution approved on Oct.18, 2018, that requires GRU to reach Net Zero Community-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2045 (see below):  

It appears that Eastman rests his argument on discrediting DOGE’s use of the term “Green New Deal,” rather than understanding that the goals of the “Green New Deal” align with the City’s “Net-Zero-Carbon-by-2045 Deal.” Whether it is purposeful or not, it’s a mistake on Eastman’s part.

The City’s net-zero mandate is a real unfunded City government mandate that would cost GRU customers billions of dollars. The City already has a Chief Climate Officer on staff whose stated goal is for Gainesville “to be the climate action leader of Florida” (see below). The only barrier to its implementation is the GRU Authority Board, who understand what I determined in 2021 – the Net Zero plan would cost GRU customers almost $5 billion and raise GRU’s debt to almost $6.5 billion in debt (see below):

Key Point #2: City finance documents show that the City has increased its annual expenditures by at least $90 million from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2025. 

Eastman seemingly fails to understand that the City’s budget is composed of more than General Fund expenditures. The budget includes expenditures from the following funds:  

1. Special revenue; 
2. Debt service;  
3. Capital projects; 
4. Proprietary; 
5. Fiduciary.    

A quick review of all of these General Government Fund expenditures shows that fiscal year 2025’s budgeted expenditures of $459 million, minus fiscal year 2020’s budgeted expenditures of $366 million, equals $90 million, or a 24% increase. That’s a fact (see below):  

Key Point #3: Once again, it’s clear from the City’s own financial documents that there has been an 85% increase in total property tax receipts between fiscal years 2020 and 2025. 

Taking the property tax revenue from the fiscal year 2020 budget ($36.6 million) and the fiscal year 2025 budget ($68.1 million), you can easily derive an 86% hike in total property tax increases between those years(actually 1% more than the DOGE press release).

Key Point #4: While the Mayor may “be darned,” he’d be less so if he’d read his City’s financial statements (see Key Point #1). 

Frankly, it’s concerning that the Mayor doesn’t understand that City expenditures have increased by $90 million.  

Key Point #5: DOGE is not analyzing the rise in millage rates, although millage rates are a part of it.  They are analyzing year-over-year total property tax revenue amounts.  

I can’t tell if the Mayor is trying to obfuscate or simply doesn’t understand that total property tax revenue is: 1) The sum of all existing taxpayers who receive a property tax assessment increase and a millage rate increase; plus 2) new property on the tax rolls that is a new assessment at the current millage rate. I’m not sure if he doesn’t understand that fiscal year 2026 isn’t part of the 85% increase calculation. Either way, the Mayor’s comments are irrelevant.

Summary

The truth is contained in the City’s very own documents. The reality is that the City still has: 1) An almost unfunded $5 billion cost of a Net Zero Community-wide Greenhouse Gas Emission by 2045 policy; 2) A $90 million increase in its expenditure budget since 2020; and 3) An 86% increase in total property tax revenues since 2020, as well.   

Once again, what is most disturbing is the lack of fiscal awareness that both Eastman and Ward display during a period of great import to city taxpayers and residents.

While reasonable people can argue why the numbers are what they are, there can be no disputing that the numbers are what they are. As former U.S. Senator Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everybody is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

GRU CEO Ed Bielarski, Gainesville

Click here to read Part 1 in the series.

Click here to read Part 2 in the series.

Click here to read Part 3 in the series.

Click here to read Part 4 in the series.

Click here to read Part 5 in the series.

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