“We need to give our businesses and homeowners some breathing room this year”: City Commission signals no property tax increase but warns that GRU transfer cuts could lead to reducing jobs
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their March 26 Budget Workshop, the Gainesville City Commission indicated that they don’t want to raise property taxes this year, but cuts to the Government Services Contribution from GRU could lead to eliminating City jobs. They also discussed potential budget increases from a new law that prohibits public camping and new contract requests from GRACE.
FY25 Strategic Plan Refresh
City Manager Cynthia Curry began by showing the “placemat” version of the City’s FY25 Strategic Plan Refresh, saying that the goals have not changed, but the center section, “Critical Organizational Components” used to be “areas that we as a City needed to really focus on because we were having challenges,” but now “we modified that, and… we’re calling it Critical Organizational Components that would need to be here, regardless.”
Curry said “Financial Stability” has replaced “[General Government] Financial Services”, but Workday issues and other technology issues are still a challenge; she said the City has some consultants working on whether to continue receiving various services from GRU or procure them elsewhere. She said there are also “a lot of City-owned facilities that need to be improved and upgraded.” The Organizational Culture component did not change, but the Communications and Community Relations component is new in this version. She added that the colors of the blocks in the “Top Priorities” section correlate to the colors of the Goals at the top.
Revenue estimates
Regarding the budget process, Curry said that City departments have been submitting worksheets to the Budget Office, but today she only had top-line numbers for what she called a “current level of service budget,” contrasted with a budget with 50% or 100% reductions in the Government Services Contribution (GSC). Curry asked Commissioners not to focus on the “impact of the decrements” but instead focus on the employee positions that would be lost. She emphasized, however, that nobody should “panic” over the preliminary numbers because “they don’t represent a recommendation from me at this time.”
Executive Chief of Staff Cintya Ramos said the City estimates an 8% growth in property tax revenue with a flat millage of 6.4297. Most other revenue sources are projected to increase by 1%-2.5%.
The chart below shows revenue estimates for FY25 with a full GSC, 50% reduction in GSC, and 100% reduction in GSC.
Expenditure estimates
The chart below shows expenditure estimates for the various scenarios. As Curry explained, these estimates just allocate cuts proportionally to departments and do not represent her recommendations yet.
The expenditures include current staffing levels, 2.5% salary increases for all City employees (or as specified in bargaining agreements), flat health insurance rates, a $3 million increase in the GRU IT Service Level Agreement, and an increase of at least $166,000 for Workday.
Ramos said GSC cuts could impact funding for community-based nonprofits, public safety initiatives, public works and transportation programs, and Parks and Recreation programming.
Ramos mentioned the new law that requires homeless camps to provide certain services, which will require additional funds, and she said the GRACE Marketplace contract expires at the end of this year. She also mentioned an “option for a franchise fee” that would be levied against GRU.
GSC elimination could affect 40.5 positions
Curry said that if the GRU Authority cuts all of the GSC, that will affect 40.5 positions across City departments, and another 10 or 11 positions could be funded from non-General-Fund sources, removing potentially 51 positions from the General Fund.
Mayor Harvey Ward asked how many of those positions are filled, and Curry said that in the Gainesville Police Department, for example, there are about 20 vacant positions, so “unfunding” those positions would not change anything – “they would remain, they just would not be funded… We never want to unfund positions in the police department.”
Curry clarified that it takes City Commission action to add a position, so it’s simpler to “unfund” a position, as opposed to removing it. “Unfunded” positions can be reactivated in the future if funds become available.
Ward asked if there was any public comment and then remarked that everyone in the room was staff.
Commissioners say they don’t want to raise property taxes
Commissioner Ed Book said, “If taxable value goes up, I’m certainly not in favor of raising millage, not one bit… We don’t want to raise fees, taxes, assessments, and put that on the back, this year, of the community.” He said any revenue increases should go “directly into the people we have.”
Ward added, “It looks like we’re talking about a fairly unremarkable budget year unless we take 10% or 5% hits to our revenue” from a reduced GSC.
Commissioner Reina Saco pointed out that property taxes will increase for some property owners, even if the millage rate stays flat, because their property values will increase, “but we are doing our half to try to keep it as steady as possible, while maintaining services at the level they’re at… I just hope GRU sees what a wonderful, helpful contribution [it is] to the community it lives in and how funding positions can [help keep] our city vibrant.”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman asked how much they would need to raise property taxes to make up for a 100% cut in the GSC. Steve Varvel, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said they really couldn’t do that because state law caps the maximum millage.
Ward asked Eastman, “Commissioner, you said at the beginning of your comments that you were not in favor of a millage increase. Is that accurate?”
Eastman said, “Well, certainly in a flat time period, as we are right now – and there’s no reason to raise taxes.” Eastman said that if GRU paid the full amount a private utility would pay in taxes, about $26 million, then the City could “bring taxes down to the exact same place that they were last year. However, he acknowledged that he didn’t expect the GRU Authority to increase the GSC this year. He continued, “But yeah, a lot of businesses have taken huge hits, in terms of getting less services and paying more in taxes. It’s been a very, very hard year on a lot of businesses… We need to give our businesses and homeowners some breathing room this year, if at all possible.” He said, however, that he didn’t want to have to “think through all the impacts” of a GSC reduction.
Ward continued, “And Commissioner Book, you also indicated you were not interested in raising the millage rate this year.” Book agreed.
New public camping law
Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut asked about the new law regarding homeless encampments, and Curry said, “It involves the County taking some leadership, depending on what happens at the point that we as a City are not able to refer people to a shelter.” Curry said she believes there is some funding from the Department of Children and Families attached to the law, $30 million across the state. She said she thought the County would take the lead on identifying a place for an encampment.
City Attorney Daniel Nee said the law is effective October 1, and by that date, a County may designate property for public camping; after that date, local governments “may not authorize or otherwise allow any person to regularly engage in public camping or sleeping in any public property – that means right-of-ways, parks, and so forth… It’s the County’s burden, I believe, under this law, to establish the security standards… but it seems like a large operational task to start the discussions on, given that I’m not sure if there’s any place that has adequate beds to provide for the complete elimination of public camping for those who are without homes.”
GRACE contract proposal includes transfer of property from City to GRACE
Curry interjected, “On the subject of housing and homelessness, we did get the first round of correspondence from GRACE, relative to the contract that will end this fiscal year. And we will need to start a new contract. It’s pretty significant… It is a serious budget consideration.”
Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons said, “The contours of the proposal are pretty straightforward. The first is that they’re requesting that the City transfer the property and assets to GRACE. That, for them, I think, opens up some possibilities for seeking additional grant funding and other fundraising opportunities. They are also asking, in addition to the property and assets, roughly about $3 million a year to support the shelter operations. There is an escalator in that, so year over year, I believe the increase is roughly about 5%, and it’s another five-year contract. The current contract that we have with GRACE does allow for a five-year extension before the City would have to go out and do another solicitation.”
Ward asked whether those increases are already in the budget assumptions, and Persons said they are not.
Cut out non essential jobs and management positions get rid of market place. Cut the pay of over paid staff including the city commissioners
Incompetent idiocy, that’s the leadership Gainesville voters keep electing to represent them. Is it because the voters are idiots or they’re just satisfied with incompetent people being their leaders?
No need to answer, the answer to both is “yes.”
A serious, sober, discussion about what time it is in the city of gainesville regarding the budget. Thank you city commisioners.
Hoping the follow through when the tough decisions are needing to be made are considered with the same earnestness with as little politicking as can be done realistically driving the decisions 👍
Don’t be fooled by their doublespeak and fictitious concern for the financial burdens on taxpayers, it’s an election year and Ward’s been looking to Biden as to how to “buy” votes.
Don’t forget, these same individuals have continuously voted to increase millage and utility rates for years. One has even given her “finger” of blessing to those employed by the city she claims to represent.
Oh I agree. My gauge on if it’s all rhetoric or not is if they move forward hiring “ambassadors” that no one in the city asked for or wants. Actions speak louder than words, but even having sane comments by them in the meeting was refreshing at least
Look at how Ward asked multiple commissioners to confirm that they don’t want to raise taxes. This was theater.
Predicted quote in late summer: “We’ve said all along that we don’t want to raise taxes, but the GRU Authority forced our hand by cutting the GSC.”
Starting by cutting all charter officer’s salaries to $65,000. Get rid of several commissioners. Reduce parks and rec. Get rid of all social services. Only have public works, police, fire, ems, and GRU.
If you reduce the Charter Officer’s salaries to $65k, you won’t have a Charter Officer. There are many employees who work for those Charter Officer’s that make more than $65k – so essentially, you’d have an employee making more money than their boss. We would lose all the Charter Officers and no on would be willing to apply for those positions.
If one looks at the line items in the city budget charter office salaries would be low on the list to cut imo.
Here $3M
Abolish dei line item 1.5M
Cut parks and cultural 15% 1.5M
You need to look into the details of each dept. Parks and Cultural includes Evergreen Cemetary.
No Charter Officers? That’s a win! Especially if it’s those pretending to perform jobs now.
Let’s start with reducing the city commissioners.
Yes!!! Starting with the mayor himself. Then Eastman and Whacko-Saco for starters.
No, we need a *majority* of residents voting in city elections. That hasn’t happened in decades.
Jesus told the leaders he was going where they couldn’t go; they wondered if he was planning suicide.
“Commissioners say they don’t want to raise property taxes”
I wonder if these tax and spend libs are planning harry carry?
One can only hope they will do the right thing and take, the AC BOCC, and FJB with them.
And roads?
They will give the assets at GRACE that have been renovated with taxpayer funds to some NGO likely run by GRACE’s current management. The NGO will load it up with debt and then use that debt service as a lever to force the city and county to fund GRACE in perpetuity. This will fully institutionalize the cost of GRACE independent of whether there is a single person out there. And any future government-funded improvement to the place will become property of the NGO.
It is not realistic to budget a flat health insurance cost in an inflationary environment.
Great point. I was assuming on that one they’re in the middle of some multi year contract that theyre locked in with but if not its a giant disconnect for sure.
Should budget for 15% increase annually in this stagflation era for health care increases.
I hope everyone is happy that you voted for this weak, blubbering fool of a mayor instead of Bielarski.
It’s an election year miracle!!
Please note that in the FY 25 Revenue Estimates,
“Intergovernmental” and “Charges for Service” are the sources for a huge, not-yet-ascertained “indirect” Governmental Service Contribution (GSC) IN ADDITION to the Direct $15.3 million GSC.
The entire Equity & Inclusion Department should be eliminated–that’s a no brainer. By their own admission, they are only focused on ensuring “equity & inclusion” within the city government itself. So we pay $1.5M annually for the most liberal people in Florida to give each other “Not Racist” gold stars. The irony of course is that they are in fact incredibly racist, but that’s another discussion.
Communication and Marketing cut by 50%. It’s an unnecessary luxury that the City can’t afford.
HR should take a serious cut as well as the bloated City government shrinks.
The pay for City charter officers is way out of line with their duties and their performance. Nearly all personal assistants should be eliminated and their needs to be a serious cap / constraint on the use of consultants. It seems like no one in this government has any skill or knowledge of their own, so every decision is farmed out to expensive consultants. The commissioners then ignore those recommendations.
The weasels on the City Commission pretend that there’s only two choices: give them GRU’s money, or they have to raise taxes. This is a false dichotomy as they have the choice to eliminate all the luxury / non-core functions of this bloated government. When they raise taxes it is because they refuse to give up their perks and special projects.
Cut all DEI stuff, all sustainability crap, all homeless program, all equal opportunity stuff, all climate czar stuff….all zero waste, all climate sh!t and all will be ok.