"Local news worth reading" — The New York Times
SUBSCRIBE
The independent voice for West Orange County news
Winter Garden announced Friday that the city had “identified nearly $4 million in reductions to the proposed operating and capital expenses,” according to a statement from City Manager Jon Williams, posted on the city’s website. As a result, the city backed off adding the unpopular fire assessment to residents' annual tax bill.
The $4 million came from “reductions in multiple departments,” Williams told VoxPopuli in a Tuesday email.
Williams said details about what items got the axe will be shared tomorrow, Aug. 14, during the city’s regular bimonthly commission meeting.
Even with the reductions, the city still has a deficit. Although, because the city budget is still in process, Williams declined to quantify the deficit as he said it would change.
The city plans to close the budget gap by reducing operating and capital expenditures, increasing the millage rate and tapping the city’s reserve savings.
Operations and personnel costs for the police and fire departments, the city's largest expenses, are a combined $36.8 million for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
Winter Garden residents were furious at the idea of having to pay additional taxes, even as they voiced support for the fire department — feedback that Williams said “greatly factored into my decision to not recommend moving forward” with the fire assessment. Their ire was expected, Williams said. In 2008, the city had attempted to impose a fire fee, and he said he knew from that experience that the fee “was not going to be well received.”
So why didn’t the city find that $4 million in reductions before announcing the fire assessment?
Much of it has to do with a compressed budget schedule, made even more so when the State Legislature went into overtime and the state budget wasn't signed into law until June 30. “Certification of taxable value occurred on July 2 and revenue estimates from the state did not start getting released until July 1, all of which is significant as this was the first look at what our major revenues were looking like,” Williams explained.
He said they needed a “very good level of confidence in the most predictable and significant revenue forecast” before they could start comparing that to what the city’s total budget looked like for 2025-2026. Only then could they begin identifying where they could start cutting.
“Let’s say the revenue forecast was significantly lower than predicted, that in turn would have made the deficit even larger,” he explained.
The city wanted to have the tools available — but hoped they wouldn't have to be used.
"We always try to cut costs before going to them for a request to pay more, especially in the economic times we are in," Williams said. "From the onset, I had discussions individually with each Commissioner (sic) ... with the goal of not financially overburdening our residents and businesses. With that, the max assessed rate was set to consider imposing the fire assessment ... but is why I stated several times that it was our goal to significantly reduce the amount of funding needed from the fire assessment."
