WINTER PARK, Fla. \u2014 Winter Park city commissioners are scheduled to review possible budget reductions as the city prepares for future budget requirements and a November ballot measure on property tax reform.<\/p>\n
Thursday’s work session is part of a series of budget discussions ahead of public hearings next month. City Manager Randy Knight has presented commissioners with a balanced budget of $247 million, with $95 million in the General Fund.<\/p>\n
Officials say they are reviewing potential cuts early in case a vote on property taxes in the state passes in November and changes are needed. According to the meeting’s agenda, “the total potential changes recommended by staff for implementation in FY27 total approximately $2.5 million in revenue enhancements and expense reductions.”<\/p>\n
State law requires cities to prepare a 90% budget showing how they would reduce spending by 10%, and while that requirement does not take effect until fiscal year 2028, Knight said the city is doing the exercise now so commissioners can evaluate possible reductions.<\/p>\n
“So, what you see on that spreadsheet is our attempt to show what a 90% budget might look like, along with our recommendations of whether it’s something we think they should consider now … but it’s really just an exercise,” Knight said.<\/p>\n
The review gives commissioners a chance to sort through their options if Amendment 3 passes and voters approve property tax cuts in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commission (will) look at each of those and say, ‘Yeah, this is something we don\u2019t want to look at yet, this is something we will maybe consider if Amendment 3 passes, and some of these would require a study,’\u201d Knight said. \u201cSo they may say, ‘Yeah, let\u2019s go ahead and study this to see if it\u2019s a good idea.’ And then some of them, they might go, ‘Yes, let us do this now.’\u201d<\/p>\n
City staff created a 10-page list of suggested reductions from different departments. Among the reductions not recommended by Knight are cuts to fire, police and some park services.<\/p>\n
Other items on the list would require a review in November or further study, and\u00a0some recommendations include staffing reductions or a hiring freeze within some city departments.<\/p>\n
The work session is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Winter Park City Hall, followed by public budget hearings scheduled for Sept. 9 and Sept. 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINTER PARK, Fla. \u2014 Winter Park city commissioners are scheduled to review possible budget reductions as the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,1015,28,2287,115,1335,139,141,140,99,278,835],"class_list":["post-382701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-emma-delamo","tag-florida","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382701","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=382701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}