Letter: Gainesville City government needs a serious course correction to cut spending

Letter to the editor

The Gainesville City budget for fiscal year 2026, up for first hearing on Wednesday by the City Commission, reflects ten years of increases that can’t all be explained by inflation, loss of GRU money, or population. Spending just keeps growing. A lot. For 10 years nonstop.

In her budget message, City Manager Cynthia Curry blames the loss of GRU transfer money for “a number of Draconian revenue reductions.” The bigger problem is more like the saying, “When everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.” The budget expansion parallels increasing disarray in City government since November 2015, when that City Commission decided that their City Managers no longer needed experience in actually running cities and still would get more pay and benefits than those who did. The current commission just approved another interim City Manager with no city management experience.

In 2016, the City went on a hiring spree of high-paid positions and disbanded City Commission standing committees that were open to the public and allowed more thoughtful vetting of proposals with frontline staff. Key advisory boards were gutted or demoted, and collective input and experience were replaced with expensive consultants doing “community engagement.”

By now, checks and balances are gone, transparency is clouded by spin, developer influence is embedded and rewarded, no-bid deals are common, important decisions are made on the fly, and genuine public participation is limited, if not unwelcome. More private-sector subsidies are planned as “economic development” incentives. Fiercely defended pricey pet projects and petty rules pop up often. The word “chaos” comes to mind.  

The FY26 proposed City budget is $467 million. Where that number ends up could be even higher by this time next year: FY25’s spending went $128 million over its previous record-high adopted budget, according to current documents; the City Manager’s office alone accounted for $12.8 million, 10% of the cost overruns. Debt service is $27 million, more than double the $13 million from three years ago, and a proposed $87 million bond issue for one pet project would increase the debt load for decades to come.

In short, the City needs budget hawks in general, not just to cut what they don’t like and defend what they do like, but to question unnecessary spending altogether. Beyond that, this supposedly nonpartisan City government needs a serious course correction with all hands on deck.

Tana Silva, Gainesville

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