INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River County residents won’t be paying more in property taxes to help fill the county’s coffers.
Instead, commissioners directed County Administrator Joe Baird to hold the line on taxes and not cut services – despite a projected $60 million cut to the county’s budget.
To make the numbers work, Baird has identified nine positions – half filled – to be eliminated, renegotiated service contracts and other ways to keep the budget balanced.
The only increase county residents and businesses can expect to see this year would be in their solid waste disposal bill.
Residents can expect to pay an extra $3.23 a year and commercial customers could expect an extra $29.39 a year.
“We wish we didn’t have to,” Baird said of raising the fee. He added that if he didn’t put forth the increase now, the county’s customers could expect double-digit increases in the near future.
To help shore up the budget, Baird decided to dip into two of the county’s fund balances, the General Fund and the Emergency Services Fund to help cover the costs of non-recurring items, including a replacement fire truck.
Baird likened using the fund balances to “digging a hole you can’t get out of,” noting some governments have continuously pulled funds from those sources without cutting back government and finding efficiencies.
“This is skimming a little bit off the top,” Baird said of the $4 million he plans to pull.
“We have to make these adjustments,” Budget Director Jason Brown said of cutting the budget. “It’s only responsible to do that.”
As for the nine full-time positions the county plans to cut, four are filled and five are vacant. Cutting the positions, which include two employees in parks, one in recreation, a retiring Assistant Fire Chief, a secretary, an engineer, two employees in the libraries, replacing a vacant full-time lifeguard position with a part-timer would save the county $625,433, according to Baird.
The personnel cuts are on top of the 29 full-time positions cut mid-way through the current fiscal year.
The cuts also bring the county to pre-1990 staffing levels, when the county’s staff was 735 strong and the population was not quite 92,500. With these latest cuts, the county will have 720 employees serving the needs of a county with more than 137,500 residents.
Baird said one reason for the relatively few employee cuts is due to the State Legislature, which passed a bill that changed the amount of money the government had to contribute to employee pensions. That alone is expected to save the county $4.1 million.
The savings, though, could be short-lived, Baird said, noting that while the legislature cut the amount this year, next year could bring a much higher contribution amount.
“It creates a problem for us,” he said, “a huge problem.”
Baird plans to discuss the issue with local representatives later.
A victim of the tightened budget is the non-profit organizations, Baird said, explaining that Child Services can expect a 5 percent cut to its budget and that the General Fund will not be supplying funds to the Cultural Council.
“We should be serving basic needs,” Baird said. “I don’t think culture is a basic need.”
The Cultural Council has been able to secure some funding elsewhere, including from the Tourist Development Council, which received funds from tourist tax dollars.
Tourism, state revenue sharing and the optional half-cent sales tax are all up this year, Baird said.
“We’re seeing signs of recovery,” he said, adding that real estate, however, is still lagging behind.
The proposed budget will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners next week during a series of workshops to discuss the individual departments’ budgets.
“They can overturn any or all of it,” Baird said of the recommended budget.
Indian River County Budget at a Glance
- Proposed taxes – $5 million = 6.4% decrease from last year
- Declining taxroll – down 6.4% in General Fund; -8.2% in Municipal Service Taxing Unit; -7.4% Emergency Services District
- Fund Reserve usage – $4 million
- Position eliminations – 9 full-time positions = $625,433 savings
- Fleet reorganization – $125,323 saving
- Retirement contributions – $4.1 million savings from State Legislation in effect July 1
- Merit/Step raises – None
- Auto Allowance – Cut $20,160
- Interest earnings – down $1.73 million
- Overtime limitation – decrease 2.9% = $55,709 savings
- Total taxing funds – down 11.7% = $18.4 million
