Fort Lauderdale tries to plug budget gap

Brittany Wallman

Jun. 17, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- FORT LAUDERDALE -- A budget shortfall of $12 million brought the city to its knees five years ago. What would a gap three times that size do?

Fort Lauderdale's City Commission talked Tuesday about priorities, so a budget can be created for the spending year that starts Oct. 1. In the backdrop: a memo alerting commissioners to a "potential budget gap of $30-40 million."

That's three or more times larger than the gaps Fort Lauderdale faced in 2003 and 2004, when the city struggled with a crippling budget crisis. The shortfalls back then forced the city to close its jail, impose unpaid "furlough days" on employees, and go to residents for more tax dollars. The crisis cost the city manager, Floyd Johnson, his job.

No such dire scenarios have been spoken of in City Hall this year. Yet.

A draft budget comes out next month. City Manager George Gretsas asked his relatively new City Commission -- four of the five are newly elected -- to guide him Tuesday in a "goal setting" session.

The basics: Commissioners want a no-layoffs budget. They don't want to raise taxes, don't want to raise the fire assessment, and don't want to cut vital services. Beyond that, they've got a long list of goals, like addressing increased homelessness, reducing crime, tackling noise problems, helping neighborhoods plan for future development, and throwing a big celebration for the city's 100th birthday in 2011, to name a few.

But the budget will start from zero this year, for the first time. It's still unknown what the city can afford. One important number, the certified value of properties, comes out July 1.

"Let's start with a blank piece of paper and work our way up from there," Gretsas said.

This year's budget for operating purposes was $348.2 million. The total budget, which includes business operations like Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, was $602.7 million.

The budget will be publicly vetted on July 22, and a tentative property tax rate will be set. Notices of proposed property taxes go out to Broward County owners in August, listing all the budget hearing dates and locations. Fort Lauderdale's will be Sept. 1 and Sept. 15.

The city's financial health is much stronger now and the emergency reserves much larger than five years ago, as confirmed in a newly released independent audit. But the city's contribution to employee pensions goes up $7.5 million in the coming budget year, property taxes might fall $10 million shorter than last year, and employee raises will require an extra $4 million, for example. Commissioners met in private Tuesday to talk about a new police contract, as well.

Tuesday's discussion was about setting priorities, but the exercise also will be used to determine what projects or initiatives won't be done.

"We are going to be focusing on necessities, on requirements," Seiler said. "What's mandated, not what we'd love to see."

MORE ONLINE: Read the budget shortfall memo at sunsentinel.com/browardpolitics.

Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

Newstex ID: 35807129