Port St. Lucie to consider job cuts, tax hike or eliminating rec programs
July 16th, 2009 by TCPalm.comPORT ST. LUCIE — Which would you prefer?
A 26 percent property tax increase, cutting 117 city jobs, having 16 fewer police officers, closing the city Parks and Recreation Department and its facilities or not tuning into PSL-TV.
Those are the options the City Council plans to discuss Thursday and Friday as the group looks at an $11 million deficit for next year’s budget.
City Manager Don Cooper is proposing a tax increase and cutting 117 city jobs to balance the budget.
If the council doesn’t approve Cooper’s suggestion, the city will have to close its communication department and with it, PSL-TV, and close its Parks and Recreation Department and its facilities.
“The ability to maintain any semblance of normal operations is no longer possible,” Cooper wrote in a July 8 memo to the council.
Under the proposed tax hike, a home with a $123,891 assessed value minus a $50,000 homestead exemption will pay $419 in the city portion of the tax bill. Despite the tax increase, a property owner could actually pay about $103 less next year, when compared to this year, because the property’s assessed value is lower. Owners who have accumulated Save Our Homes benefits could see a tax increase of 3 percent or the consumer price index.
Four years ago, that $123,891 house had an assessed value of $159,135, city records show.
“The city has also seen a reduction in other revenues (sales tax) and a significant drop in growth-related revenues,” Cooper wrote in the memo. “This has reduced funds available for operations and capital projects.”
Some of the 117 positions on the chopping block are not filled and have been left open through attrition, said David Pollard, the city’s director of the office of budget and management.
While 16 police officers could be laid off, police spokesman Tom Nichols said it was too soon to say what effect the proposed cuts would have on the department.
“In the event there is a reduction in staffing, rest assured public safety will not be jeopardized,” he said.
If the council does approve layoffs, city employees will have to be told this week because law requires local governments to give a 60-day notice or hold off layoffs until the next budget year, Cooper said in the memo.
Pollard said city officials are doing everything to prevent cuts including dipping into the city’s reserves.
The city’s policy is to have 8 percent of the budget stored away. Pollard said city officials have already dipped into the reserves, which by Sept. 30 will have a balance of $9 million from a previous $19 million.
“The reserve acts like a personal savings account, where you put money in it,” he said. “You can only go in it so many times.”
How Port St. Lucie proposes to make up an $11 million shortfall
Raise property taxes to 5.3351 per $1,000 of taxable value from 4.2172 per $1,000 of taxable value. That will generate $25.2 million.
Cut 117 full-time jobs. Estimated savings unavailable.
Close the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and create a phase approach for selling recreation buildings and lands. The department has a $11.4 million budget.
Close the city’s Communication Department, which includes the end to PSLTV. The department has a $700,000 budget.
What: Port St. Lucie City Council Retreat
When: 8:30 a.m. today and Friday
Where: Port St. Lucie Community Center, 2195 S.E. Airoso Blvd.
By Keona Gardner, TCPalm.com
Tags: budget, communication, cuts, government, housing, jobs, layoffs, money, police, prices, property, raise, raises, safety, sale, sales, taxes, value
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July 16th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Cut the city jobs. Crime is not only consistant, but will increase with the state of the economy. We need the officers on the street for everyones protection. The city officials are paid too much anyway. If they all decided to take a cut in pay, maybe none would have to lose their jobs!
July 16th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Cut the cops - they take up most of the budget and waste so much money on “overtime”. If the city surveyors wanted to take home the survey equipment and work on the weekends for extra money do you think that would be aloud - no freakin way!! So why are the cop special?? PSL cops are all crooks!!!
July 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
if public safety is not going to be affected by firing police officers. then why were they hired. so much has been wasted. south florida wont recover for 2o years.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Lay off City Workers since that includes not filled vacancies. I agree with the 1st opinion, we need our police officers. Crime has gone up and we need to be protected. As a last resort, cancel the psl news on tv but that will mean that fliers will have to be mailed to all of the citizens to keep us informed on what is going on.
Whatever you do PLEASE DO NOT RAISE OUR TAXES as we are already being hit with many taxes and we are told it is going to get worse with what Obama & Bush have done with the stimulus monies and how Congress is trying to tax us on everything just to pay for all the government bailouts.
My home was bought in 2006 for $320,000.00. This year this same home that I had built is being sold for 199,000. to 215,000.00. I am paying more of EVERYTHING and have stayed in my home, paid my bills on time and do not plan on foreclosure like everyone else who bailed out. If I do not see us getting some relief soon, we are going to sell, take our loses and move out of PSL because we are just tired of having to pay more and more.
I know that there are excesses in government. Please, PLEASE tighten your belts and do not raise taxes on the citizens. Enough is enough!!
July 17th, 2009 at 9:54 am
This is obviously just a case of poor city planning. My husband was the city’s golf pro for seven years until three months ago, when the city in its infinite wisdom decided to cut his position - the only position in Parks and Rec. that generated income. Oh, they did keep the golf course manager, who made more money than him, is not a PGA pro, cannot run golf tournaments or provide golf lessons (essential for generating income for a golf course) and the supervisor of the superintendents, who also earned muuch more than my husband was hired by him as a superintendent and then was promoted by the head of Parks and Rec. to be his boss ( they created a new upper management position that was non-essential). Both of those salaries were never necessary and cost the city well over $100,000 per year. The problem was the folks running the city had no idea how to run a golf course. I suspect this is true of many of the city’s other departments. In golf, it’s kind of basic, you need a golf pro who is a PGA professional to run the course and a superintendent to keep up the land. Unless you are a very exclusive course, there is no need for a golf course manager. Especially one ike the city hired, who was never trained as a PGA pro, nor ever attended college. A nice man though. But because he had no idea how to run a golf course, every year my husband was asked by city officials what he was going to do to increase play and revenue. The course, with its very competitive rates, was playing at maximum capacity, so unless a couple hours more daylight was an option, there was no way to increase play. Option 2 - increase rates at this city golf course. Well if you increase rates by five or ten dollars each year, you would have the rates equal to some of the finest golf courses in the country in less than a decade. I dare say, the Saints is a fine city golf course, but is no Bethpage. When he was hired he pushed the city to build an additional 9 holes to have the course generate income. Right now the golf course will never earn money for the city.Apparently the city owned more than enough land to build another nine-hole golf course. He recommended building the extra nine holes to generate an additional $500,000 per year. This never came to pass. this story is not sour grapes, it’s only my second-hand knowledge of city management thinking. The reason why the city faces such an enormous deficit, and why they were always searching for increase revenue from the golf course, is city officials never foresaw a drop in the housing market and always planned the budget based on increases in property taxes. When that didn’t work and the market crashed, they panicked, added non-essential upper management positions who were blowing smoke to help generate that lost income that never was to be. There was never a ceiling for city officials. They obviously never understood the basic theories of Economics 101.
Fire the city manager first! Keep the police officers. If I lived in PSL I would be outraged that the city would even consider raising my rates by 26% and propose cutting essential public services. It’s through his leadership the city is in this position. Anyone in the non-profit development world knows if you can’t make your fundraising goals, you’re outta there. Can you imagine if this 26% passes? My mother, who moved from PSL three years ago because she could no longer afford her her property taxes, was paying over $5,000 per year on her three-bedroom home. If she stayed and this 26% were passes, she would be paying more than $6,000 per year. Folks, this is PSL, not Palm Beach.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Why do we have to read about this from TCPalm while your reporters are busy writing about petty traffic accidents that only the victim cares about?
July 17th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I agree with jfc enough is enough, you just raised the tax on cell phones and cable tv, my cell phone went up 3.50 and so did my cable, thats per phone and cable tv in psl, thats, 7.00 for our 2 cell phones and 3.50 for cable. 10.50 for our house, how many cells phones are there in psl and how many have cable? you are paying 7.00 per house hold with just 1 cell, and cable, got a home phone? thats another 3.50.now they want to raise property taxes too. are they crazy, people cannot afford that increase as many are struggling to keep thier homes and feed thier families.I agree, you guys take a pay cut, stop the cops taking police cars home and using them for personal use.close all those parks no one even uses, get rid of your deadwood maintance workers.This used to be a nice city to live it, no more, I hate it here and if I could sell my home now I’d be long gone !!
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