During a budget workshop, Leon County Commissioners considered some changes to cut expenses if taxpayers vote to roll back property taxes this fall. At the workshop county officials discussed how the possible loss of property tax revenue could impact Leon County\u2019s budget in the coming years.<\/p>\n
County officials said a study found Leon County is more reliant on the funds from property taxes than a typical Florida county, with property tax revenue making up about 60% of the county\u2019s budget. They also said there is no other revenue source that can replace the funds generated by property taxes.<\/p>\n
County leaders discussed cost saving measures to prepare for possible cuts like implementing a hiring freeze for non-essential positions and a voluntary separation program, similar to the one offered by the City of Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the magnitude of the projected property tax reductions, I\u2019m proposing that the county implement immediate stop-gap measures in the current fiscal year to the best position the county for the difficult decisions to be made in the coming months,\u201d Leon County Administrator Vince Long said. \u201cThis includes a hiring freeze for all nonessential personnel, a freeze on nonessential travel and training not required to maintain certifications and licenses, a freeze on discretionary community sponsorships, not including those line items approved in March in your budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long said that these measures are designed to mitigate layoffs to the greatest extent possible by leaving vacant positions unfilled and to realize cost savings that can be used to delay service level reductions.<\/p>\n
With commission approval, the hiring, travel and training freezes will extend to the constitutional offices, such as the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Leon County Clerk of Courts.<\/p>\n
Amid all the cost saving discussion, commissioners voted 4-3 in favor or a 4% raise for county employees. This will cost the county an additional $800,000, but commissioners in support said this may be the last time they\u2019re able to give raises for a while. Those against said they can\u2019t support spending more on salaries when the potential for property tax revenue to be cut is on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re lucky to have a gap year to prepare for what we have to deal with next year. But as we make our decisions today, let\u2019s make our decisions today understanding what we\u2019re going to have to deal with a year from now, and understanding the position that Leon County \u2013 not just the commissioners and not just the constitutionals \u2013 but Leon County as a whole is going to be in when we have to deal with those cost-savings,\u201d Leon County Commissioner Nick Maddox said.<\/p>\n
The county may also enact a voluntary separation program for employees. It would be the second local government to institute that form of cutback.<\/p>\n
Specific details related to the issues discussed will be provided at another workshop in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a budget workshop, Leon County Commissioners considered some changes to cut expenses if taxpayers vote to roll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-310416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}