by David Chapman
Staff Writer
For Mayor-elect Alvin Brown’s Budget/Finance transition committee, the question isn’t if cuts are coming. It’s what those recommended cuts should be.
Charged with offering recommendations to Brown before he presents his initial budget July 14 to City Council, the committee met Thursday for the second time and received overviews of the midyear budget review, projected revenues and expenditures over the next five years and a tentative proposed budget figure.
“We have to change,” said Matt Carlucci, committee co-chair and a former Council member. “City government is going to have to change.”
But even with a projected budget deficit topping $60 million, committee Co-chair Charlie Appleby said he believed both short- and long-term budget balances won’t be achieved with cuts alone. Instead, he said, it will be growth of tax base that provides a balance.
City Chief Financial Officer Mickey Miller presented much of the information to the committee, but warned that across-the-board cuts each of the past several years left some departments already too thin and suggested some services might have to be eliminated altogether.
“It’s harder and harder and harder when you do it three, four, five times,” said Miller of cuts in the 3 percent range the past several years.
Committee members were assigned departments and programs to review and they plan to meet individually with department heads and staff over the next week.
They will look for potential budget savings, effectiveness and inadequacies and potential privatization opportunities to create “mini white papers” for full committee review during its next meeting June 24.
Carlucci will review Information Technology and Fleet Management; Terry Wood will review Public Works and revenue projects; Shari Shuman will review the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department; Lois Chepenik will review Recreation and Community Services; Martha Pellino will review the Jacksonville Journey and Jacksonville Children’s Commission; Ava Parker will be asked to review public service grants and the public libraries; and Kevin Hyde will be asked to review purchasing. Hyde did not attend and Parker left before the assignments were made
Sheriff John Rutherford and former Fire and Rescue Director Dan Kleman attended the meeting.
Rutherford told the group he will hire part-time officers for security detail for the courthouse, which allows flexibility and saves money that would have been used for benefits.
Kleman advised the group not to use reserves to plug budget gaps and to instead make tough cuts.
The committee discussed the possibility of advocating the use of part-time workers instead of full-time employees when permissible.
Other briefing points included a presentation of outstanding debt and refunding, often viewed as a possible avenue of budget savings. But Miller shot that down, saying it’s not an available option.
The City Finance Department Budget Division provided five-year projections. Though property taxes will continue to fall over the next two fiscal years, a rebound is expected for the three fiscal years of 2014-16.
The downside, though, is that expenditures will still outgrow revenues, according to the report. The report shows a projected $66 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2012.
Appleby turned the group’s attention to the task at hand. “We’ve just got to get through this year,” said Appleby.
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