Fiscal year 2021 budget update and employee raises

1:51:10that, I don't think uh Mr. Biles, we have eight minutes. Actually, if you want to go over if you go over a few things in eight minutes, it's totally up

1:51:19to you, sir. We'll let Bob get started and at least give you an update on where we are the budget. Uh we're we'll be bringing the trim to you in on the fourteenth. So if he doesn't get all the way through it, we can have a further discussion on the fourteenth.

1:51:33Alrighty, sir. Go ahead,

1:51:34Bob.

1:51:37Blood Bob.

1:51:40He was on the mic. There he is.

1:51:45We'll go through them quickly. As uh Dan said

1:51:50Please. Next slide. So uh we haven't included a lot of uh Information on the economy in here just because it's been changing so quickly. The takeaway from this slide is just as the pandemic has a negative impact. on the private sector. It also has a negative impact on the revenues of the county. And so in other words as the accounty as the economy does well, the Revenues coming into the economy. increase and on the other hand as the economy is doing not so well. the revenues coming into

1:52:21the county are on decline. And so With that in mind, we're expecting the state of the economy to be at least as bad as it was during the 2002, 2007, 2009 Great Recession. And so we've built our budget to reflect that thought. Next, please. And so here we have the March sales tax figures. As you know, the we are two months behind. So we receive our Uh state share revenues

1:52:51two months after They're uh reported to the state. Those are the March numbers. We've just received the April numbers here. And so in March you see the half cent sales tax decline by uh 13% in April. The governor, as you know. Reported What article? Stay at home order April first around there. And so the half cent sales tax was down 19% for the month of April. Well, Penny for Pasco was down

1:53:21twenty-four percent and our gas taxes were down an average of twenty-two percent. So in April was really Um difficult for us uh revenue wise. Next slide, please.

1:53:35Uh we calculated based on the March and April numbers, we calculated kind of a worst case scenario you can see here in the general fund. That the worst case scenario would be in fiscal year 20, we may lose as much as $14 million from uh loss of sales tax revenues. Okay.

1:53:55So this just is to show that uh when things are going well in the economy nationwide, they're really going well in in Pasco and in the state of Florida as a whole. But when things tank, they really tank in Florida. So we're The blue line there is the US gross domestic product. And you can see when that's when that starts to decline in Florida and in Pasco, we've really declined. much further than it does in the rest of the country, mainly because we're Our economy is

1:54:25so uh dependent on tourism. Next please. And so basic current and and historic data, this is kind of the The assumption together for the fiscal year twenty one budget. Thanks, please.

1:54:41So as you know, we received our preliminary taxable assessed values from the property appraiser June 1st. We are supposed to be receiving the final taxable assessed values by July 1st, so tomorrow.

1:54:57Based on the 7% increase, which was the preliminary values, that would have increased property taxes by about $14.8 million. Our agreement with the sheriff is that half of those revenues go to the sheriff. Seven point four million dollars. We deduct increase to the CRAs as well as the increase to the TIFF. We decrease or remove the amount that we need to contribute to reserves to build our reserves to that 12.5% mark. And that puts us down to

1:55:27about $3.7 million. We take out the expected increase in constitutional budgets of a half a million. And so that leaves $3.2 million for the board to spend on board as well as other constitutional kinds of initiatives. Next please. So we here we have the Taxable assessed values for the FIRE MSTU, and you'll notice it's at 4.8 per $4.8 million increase. The increase in assessed values was 10.1%.

1:55:59And the reason that the increase in the fire MSTU was so much larger than the increase in the general fund. was because the city of Zephyrhills was added to the fire MSTU roles for the very first time for fiscal year 21. Next please.

1:56:15Here are our constitutional officer budget requests. As we noted, the sheriff uh at half of the increase in the taxable assessed value. So that's about a 5% increase. The property appraiser, on the other hand, has uh said he's demonstrated some increases in efficiencies due to technology. And so he needs about five less people than he had previous years. And our clerk and controller is about even. Notice the supervisor of election budget is increasing by 1.2%. What's

1:56:46not shown here is in the future. To maintain safe Uh election practices, about $1.2 million will be used from the CARES fund. in order to pay for social distancing, masks and that kind of thing. Next please.

1:57:05Next please. So this is the What's currently funded? We're making the I'm sorry, no please.

1:57:13Outside requests for funding, we're making the recommendation that we increase the health department request of uh $100,000 and the premier health grant match of $150,000. And Fiscal year twenty one budget. Next please.

1:57:32So the main cost drivers of the fiscal year 21 budget course are employee health insurance and retirement increases. There is the uh final phase of the firefighters step correction plan, which gets all of our fighters, all of our firefighters now into this correct step where they should be. Next one.

1:57:52And with those cost drivers in mind, you can see the changes in our major funds, the general fund increasing by just 2%. The tourism development tax fund, the budget decreasing by 25%. And we'll see in a little bit what's happened to their revenues. And so we've just simply uh reduce their budget to reflect where we think their revenues are going to be. And then in the stormwater fund, this is really not a decrease in the budget. It just reflects how we are anticipating. Okay, so

1:58:22this just reflects uh where we the way we account for capital financing within the within the fund. Next please.

1:58:33And here's our general fund departments. So we've taken out the constitutionals officers and you can see just the board side has increased by less than 1%. Some uh highlights here. You can see the county attorney's office decreasing by 5.1%. That's not really a true decrease. We have shifted some of the expenses from the county attorney's office over into the HRE program where it's more appropriate to fund those things. Human resources again shifting people, that's not really a true decrease in their personnel. And then

1:59:03What do we have here? Uh The last point I wanted to make was fire rescue decreasing by 12%. And the reason for that is because we had some. Initiatives that we implemented in 20, but because of the reduction in the revenues, we weren't able to. uh move forward with those initiatives. Next please.

1:59:25And here we have the Municipal Services Fund. You'll notice again, fire rescue, a decrease of 4.5%. That's not really a true decrease. There were some expenditures in the 102 fund that we moved to other places where we feel it's more appropriate for those expenditures to occur.

1:59:44And so as you see there, we had uh Hundred and fifteen. Business plan initiatives brought forth by our All of our department directors. And as you'll notice on the next slide. That because of the uh expected impact on the economy and our revenues, uh From the pandemic, we were actually only recommending we move forward with eleven business plan initiatives of those 115 in the general fund. and municipal services fund. So

2:00:14you can see of course we're opening Storkey Library. In uh August, I believe. Starkey District. As that part moves forward. Some of the contractual or some of the obligations that are now done by the developer are being shifted to the To the Central facilities.

2:00:35A building in the central part of the county for facilities. For them to work out of Um let's see. We're Recommending an employee wage rates of two percent to keep pace with inflation. And then finally put some money in the budget to update the the comprehensive plan Way am Uh Based on the time we have here, I think I'd like just like to stop at this point and see if there are any questions.

2:01:01Hey Bob, you said there was a hundred and fifteen original Initiative. Yes, sir. 115 and we are doing eleven. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes, sir. Okay. 115 proposed Moving forward with eleven. Okay. Yeah. Really, what was our give us our number, give us our total budget, um FY20 and proposed twenty-one total budget? So

2:01:31for the general fund or total? Total. So it was uh it's around one point four billion dollars.

2:01:39I can get those for you certainly. Yeah.

2:01:41If you give me 2020 and then for post 21. Oh yeah.

2:01:46Yes,

2:01:46sir. I'll get those to you. I don't have no say that. Um you can just email it to me during break. Yes, sir. That I'll do. Maybe email it to all the commissioners. Well,

2:02:01Any chair is Mr. Gorick?

2:02:04Sure.

2:02:05Make sure it walls.

2:02:07Thank you, Chairman. Um, and thanks, Bob, for your team and Dan, your entire team. I know it's been a t it's gonna be a tough year. One thing I noticed and I know we've talked about in our meetings is that we're only giving the employees two percent raise. You know, the state's doing three percent. I believe almost all the constitution is doing three percent. There is nothing more important on this budget instead of taking care of our folks. We have to take care of our team. I would like to see that be a three percent. I think that's an extra half million. You said to the budget. Um, we have some time, board members

2:02:38to discuss it, but Again, I know we're in a tough spot. I know it's a tough time, but you know, I wasn't here back through the recession when the employees went four or five years without any raises. Again, I just there's nothing more important than our teams. And all of us have praised our teams today. So I just, I would like to see that number match what Governor DeSantis has given to state employees at 3%, as well as what all the constitutionals are giving their employees.

2:03:03Follow up. Yes, Commissioner Weightman, you know, the reason we State at the two percent one is that basically matches the the inflation rate, which was two point one percent last year. Yeah, and we also wanted to be mindful of what is going on in the rest of the community as well. And so that's why we we stayed at that number. We wanted to make sure we protected. you know, our current what they say current with the economy and with the cost of living in the county. But one to be mindful of what else is going on in the county as well. So that's kind

2:03:33of why we ended up too. It wasn't Because we don't want to take care of more. I just that's why we end up with

2:03:39the I'm I'm assuming, you know, you well you went over with all the board members. Of course that's not. Um and I get that again, but there is nothing more important than taking care of our team. Period. So I would like to see that three percent again. I I'm not going to make a motion. I'm just kind of curious where the board sits at it. We can make a motion later, but the employees need to be, and I know we're still not sure on the number from Mr. Joyner. If the number may go up, it may go down. Um I just again have a great team here at the county. So

2:04:08Yeah.

2:04:09I think you um um Bob and Dan, I think you just have some direction to take a look at that and see how that would look, if I'm not correct. Very good.

2:04:20Anybody else? If not, we'll be on break. Uh Commissioner Starkey, I see you.

2:04:24Yes. Um, you know, I I appreciate our staff very much. Um, but I I agree with what um the administrator is doing. I think, you know, I think we're kind of known as a as a conservative county and At three. They've been getting I think three percent raises pretty consistently since I've been here. So, you know, every three years, that's almost a 10% increase. That's really. Can add up pretty quickly. Um, and and I was surprised

2:04:55to to learn that our employees get a month off even from the day they're hired. So I think our benefits package is excellent. And um so I I feel we're taking real

2:05:08So um I'm okay with the two percent for this year and Things get better next year, back up to three.

2:05:16Yeah.

2:05:22Commissioner Mariano, sorry, that's her.

2:05:24I I'm willing to like let staff keep it as an item that we can look at coming up down the road.

2:05:33Okay. So again, so I guess the I understand So it sounds like the again, the d only direction is to take a look at what um Commissioner Weightman proposed and um