Fiscal year 25 budget final adjustments

1:44:19Consent. Consent. We'll move on to

1:44:29Somebody's coming.

1:44:32Amy's coming, so

1:44:34sure I am. Hi, Amy Farrell, Budget Director with uh Pasco County's Office of Management and Budget. Um so I'm here to present final adjustments on our fiscal year twenty-five budget. Uh there were some minor adjustments and updates made to these slides this morning, so I am asking that you accept the revised version into record.

1:44:57Thank you, Gina.

1:44:58Move to receive and Well, okay.

1:45:01Second.

1:45:02Got a motion and second to receive and file. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion pass five zero.

1:45:13All right, so today we're gonna uh do a recap on our first public hearing, then we're gonna go over some fiscal year twenty-five budget highlights and um just remind everyone of what's built into this budget as it stands. We'll review the tentative millage rates and then the county administrator is going to give a recommendation based off the direction that the board gave during the first public hearing. And then we'll close out with the next steps.

1:45:40All right, so two weeks ago we had our first public hearing on September 3rd, and the board adopted tentative millage rates and a budget. At that time, the parks, capital maintenance, MSTU, it did not pass, so that is at zero levies, and so that has been adjusted into the budget that's going to be presented before you. And board directed staff to provide scenarios for establishing the roads rehabilitation services, MSTU to include a reduction to the general fund revenue.

1:46:10And so that's the recommendation that Mike will give you guys in a few minutes.

1:46:16All right, so budget highlights. So just to remind everyone, at the core of the of the budget, especially when we're looking at that general fund budget and we're talking about um what those different components are, we just wanted to remind you that the Biggest chunk of our budget before you is continuing to provide those essential premier services that our citizens have come to expect, right? So making sure that we're still able to provide those same levels of services tomorrow that everyone's gotten used to. We are prioritizing keeping the public safe.

1:46:47Different initiatives and expenses in the budget related to that are the sheriff operations, the jail expansion personnel, as we're expanding our jail operation, we are building up their staffing model so that way they can open. And we are growing our fire response capability. We're also maintaining a competitive compensation by going through a comp and class study this year for our team members. And we are streamlining development and expanding our infrastructure. And we're

1:47:17also looking to invest in our public road infrastructure the right way through the paving MSTU, replacing the old PVAS system. And then of course we wanted to make sure that everyone was aware we are trying to be very good stewards of our existing infrastructure by reinvesting back into those facilities.

1:47:38All right. Our rather large budget is made up of four key components. So we've got our operating budget, which is over half of it, right? So that's maintaining daily operations. Um we're looking to invest roughly $400 million into capital infrastructure. Um we've got roughly forty-five million towards debt service. And then we're um then the rest of it makes up our reserves. Uh a big component of that is our restricted reserves in order to maintain things like

1:48:08bond covenants and um operating should there be an event like a hurricane that stops operations, but we still need to keep moving, right?

1:48:19All right, so Uh the revenue that we're looking at. So again, these are big high level groupings of our revenues by what we call function, which is type of revenue. Um so that big blue piece of the pie, that is our fund balance. The next largest slice is our ad valorem taxes. So that's our general taxes. That's our fire MSTU, and in there is the Rhodes MSTU tax based off of the millage that was set in July and then reset at

1:48:49the first public hearing. Um when you go to the lighter grayish almost blue charges for service, that's a the next biggest um piece of the pie, that's for things like our water service, our solid waste service, things like that.

1:49:06So then if you flip it over and look at the expenses, again at those big chunks of type of expenses, we've got cultural recreation, that's our parks and libraries, human services, think a lot of what Kathy Pearson's group does in public services. Physical environment, so that's going to be your utility, your solid waste. Public safety, that includes the sheriff, that includes firewall. rescue that includes corrections. The next bigger piece is general government. So in that lump, that's things like our

1:49:36IT infrastructure and maintenance, facilities management, our constitutional officers save for the sheriff is in that pie. And that also houses um our unfunded state mandates that we talked about a little bit two weeks ago.

1:49:52All right, so let's drill in now a little bit to general fund. So that big blue piece and the yellow piece, that those two pieces of the pie are what we need to continue to provide those high levels of service that our citizens have grown accustomed to, right? So the yellow that speaks to the the inflationary pressures that the general fund is feeling in terms of the costs of things being a bit more expensive. Yeah. 4% is are things that we're calling requirements, in that we're looking at the expansion

1:50:23of the jail operations, adding the fourth shift for fire rescue. In there's that compensation study that we were talking about, also the union wage increases for the corrections officers and our fire team. That five percent, that's capital infrastructure, and then the one percent are things that we're calling enhancements. So think of those as like positions to increase levels of service or sometimes even maintain levels of service just to compete with the growth that we're seeing.

1:50:55All right, so another way to look at our general fund, public safety makes up 52% of the expenses coming out of the general fund. General government makes up roughly 20%. And again, that's our IT infrastructure and maintenance, facilities, constitutional officers, save the sheriff, and again those unfunded state mandates.

1:51:17Yeah.

1:51:19And then we did want to uh just remind the board and the public that we do have a list. These are some of those unfunded state mandates that we had talked about, and then there's also some um Some investments that we're making at the board's discretion.

1:51:40All right, so we now do have all of our constitutional officer proposed budgets. We received the tax collectors last week. Right on time with state statutes. And this is how they are shaking out. So you'll see that um most of our constitutional officers are also impacted by inflation and things like that. Um next year will be an off-cycle for the supervisor of elections, so in true fashion he does trim his budget on the off-cycle and we appreciate that.

1:52:10All right, so we had talked earlier about some of the investments that we're making into public safety. So specifically, here are some of the investments that we're making for the sheriff's budget. It does include 40 additional deputies, 20 to be funded by the sheriff's 40% of our tax increase, and then 20 to be matched from the board's contribution to his budget. We're also looking at some one-time expenditures for an armored SWAT vehicle, armored vans, some upgrades to their forensic unit, a pole barn to help house

1:52:40and keep the pieces of equipment, keep maintain some longevity. Starting up gap insurance for his team, and then looking at remodeling, trying to find a solution for their. for their currently temporary bathrooms at the gun range.

1:52:59Can you go back I need to see the new revised price on that back?

1:53:04So that did come down from eight hundred and twenty five to two hundred thousand.

1:53:07Yeah.

1:53:11Still a lot of money. No spot.

1:53:14Um

1:53:15almost build a house for that. So I don't know.

1:53:24Yeah. For what for one bathroom? Well why can't we do the kind of bathroom I'm sorry that we did at Sun Coast Park, the Sun Coast Trail and Starkey Trail where it's a environmentally conscious composting bathroom was very nice. So I still I still want you to look at that.

1:53:45Yeah, Commissioner Weight these are planning numbers at this point with with no design other than just a a user requirement. You know, that was, you know, the the original budget was just based off of some concession numbers that we had. These are, again, they will be refined and and we understand that the board and the sheriff want a cost effective solution out there, and that's what our facilities team will do.

1:54:05I do I want to see the compare and compare. Contrast in the price of those two types of bathrooms. Thank you.

1:54:14Engineering capital to dig a little bit deeper. This shows you what we're looking to invest for capacity, for major maintenance, multimodal, pedestrian type things like sidewalks, safety intersections, and signals.

1:54:32All right. So these are the tentative millage rates that were set during the first public hearing. The only change from what got adopted in July is that that parks MSTU is set at zero mills.

1:54:49And then just a reminder to everybody from the jail projects debt 2019 and below, those are all of the general obligation millages. That way we can pay back the annual debt services associated with the referendum that passed in 2018.

1:55:09All right.

1:55:10Thank you, Amy. Um at the at the public hearing, the board direction was after the board had listened to the public comment. Board direction, in my mind, was was very, very clear on what we what we need to do. You know, last year, as we went through the budget process, we scrubbed a lot of budgets midsummer and to to make sure that budgets were done efficiently. And I would say coming into this year, I think we've we've provided a lot more transparency, I think, than has Ever been provided to the board to kind of walk hand in hand as we as we work to develop this this budget, which I think has

1:55:40really kind of kind of set the standard for where we wanted to go. And so as Amy said, 90% of our budget is currently providing the premier level of service, stuff that we are already doing for our citizens. So when you really look at where do you make reductions, it becomes a very uh very daunting challenge. But I was happy with our team. We we went back and I again had the team kind of look and see where is it that looking at new expenditures, what what can we uh what's really must be done critically today and and more importantly what what can

1:56:10wait um and and how do we realign this this uh budget to make the challenge uh of of what the public is feeling. So I'm I'm pleased to recommend here a reduction in the general operating millage from seven

1:56:26That reduction um will will result in a savings. And I want to walk you through how we got there. So If we pass a paving MSTU, those are dollars that uh would would go to pave not only local roads, uh doing sidewalk work as well as you know arterials and collectors, because it is it is roads for everyone. Our our paving funds are typically funded, we take it from the uh tax increment financing district that the board has into the Chan Transportation Trust Fund. We knew early on that there were

1:56:57going to be Be reductions in that if we passed a paving MSTU. So I was comfortable early on taking $2 million and pushing that towards public safety to hire additional deputies for the sheriff. And the sheriff reciprocated in return with his his additional dollars to to do another 10 deputies. Overall, of his 60 deputy assets, I think the board could be very, very proud of its investment in public safety with 40 new deputies out of those 60, which is unprecedented. Since I've been here in the county. Um, but I uh we looked even deeper into into

1:57:27additional programs and what could we do on the public work side. And so there was about three and a half million dollars of additional recurring expenses that I feel that at this time public works can do without uh over time if as as uh operations expand, if we need to consider it with additional expenses, then that's fine. But I think right now the the time is to give that. money back to the taxpayers. So we can take an additional three and a half from that. Also, we look at uh we looked at optimizing the timing of several hires for public safety, right? We are expanding at a rapid pace. We

1:57:57have a jail that is about to come online, we have new fire stations. However, the construction and the timing of new hires doesn't always align. And so when we took a very, very critical look, we already looked at it and op I felt we had optimized it the first time, but when we really took an additional critical look at it to look at See what our what the market environment is and what we think we realistically can bring in in terms of hires, I felt comfortable making an additional $2 million reduction in general fund spending with the understanding that while that's not cutting a

1:58:27recurring expense like the like the first one, it's deferring a recurring expense. But if you know with growth, those things can become priorities and requirements in the future. So they will be future expenses, but I think today we can go ahead and afford to make those reductions. Furthermore, when you look at our new investments, and these are these are the enhancements and some of the capital items, and we are comfortable. You know, coming off of that, perhaps down to that middle number, thank you, uh in in the point four oh five two, that would provide some additional

1:58:57relief over what was proposed. And again, would would retire PVAS and make um uh make a serious dent uh into into what is our road problem. So you would see a lot, you would see more rejuvenation, uh roads getting uh getting repaired, sidewalks.

1:59:15So that would be that would be our recommendation at this point, but it is the pleasure of the Board and I'll be quiet now and entertain questions and let the Board discuss.

1:59:23Okay, I I'd like to say something about the Mr. M STU it's on on paving I think of all the calls I get in my my office. All the calls, most of those calls are about paving. And our PVAS system we've had in the past. has been so terrible the way it puts neighbors against neighbors. fighting on who wants to pay and who don't. And most of the time All the PVAS is in the eight years I've been here. Most of them fail. Only

1:59:54a few are past. that their neighbors and all are agree on and and get their roads paved. So something has to be done to do that and PVAS is so bad at about putting a neighbor against a neighbor. that it's a terrible way to pave. And even in some areas that are Very um not not as wealthy or poor areas of our communities. They need their roads paved too, but they don't need to go through a PVAS that really puts a lot of

2:00:24expense on them and most of it ends up on their property because they can't pay they end up not paying. But the fact of it is we need to get rid of PVAS and start some somewhere in this area. Um of paving roads. for the future because that's the big you heard it today. And of course we got flooding issues too, but we've worked on flooding issues l for a long time and we've corrected a lot, but there's still more to do in there. But Roads

2:00:54that need paved. all over our county, no matter what district we talk about. is very, very important to the citizens. And I I agree that nobody wants to pay But we all have to do that. pay something. I'm gonna pay more than most people. Oh mine. But I was in tune with the fact and I told Mike when he presented that to me. I had already come off the point five one eight four. to the fact that I would be in grants to point four oh Because

2:01:24it would reduce on a lot of citizens that are on fixed incomes. But instead of being that medium price of a home of uh one hundred and sixty thousand over over the county. It reduced from being like eighty five dollars a home. to like sixty four dollars at home. That's the savings. And I think it is like If you're close numbers, five that's like five dollars a month. overall and I think that helps all the citizens

2:01:55and will continue helping us all get the paving done that we need done for our citizens. We're trying to be a premier county. with with all that we do. We need our roads better. And I have Y'all gonna laugh at me, but I have half of this county. I still want fifty percent of the paving. And the fact of it is I have more of those bad roads in my area than than others do, but also I realize that Mr. Mm. Lisa and Jack's areas,

2:02:25they have the same issues. And we would equally share in those paving throughout the year. That's upcoming. And that even includes roads that are partially paved to them all being paved with this new system. Sweep. That's my thoughts. Anyone else? All right.

2:02:44Well we're we're on a twelve o'clock time circuit, so

2:02:47This is this is A little bit more important conversation in my opinion than the lunchtime meeting. Uh, thank you, Chair Oakley. Yeah, I'm not sure. Preliminarily I'm happy to land between the Point four and the point one two area as the day day goes on. A point of clarification with private roads, if you're not in a C D D Can you live on a private road that's already a little bit more than a little bit? paved and those folks are paying into it. With the is would the county Still

2:03:17be able to have those I guess County Attorney question. Uh Um uh A contract. With the folks that live there to maintain their road since they're paying for it or would that just strictly be with the C D Ds? I this a couple of questions and I couldn't answer answer the question. So say you own A road, it's a private road. uh say minor rural subdivision, so to speak, and has paved down. And they're paying into the system. They're not a a formal C D D how we discussed

2:03:47if A C D D, for example, could If their bonds are paid off, they could Theoretically.

2:03:55community because there's no longer a benefit to the public since the bond's paid, or potentially come into an agreement with the county and have a contract and maybe turn over that road. for maintenance to the county. Would that same principle happen In for all private roads or just formal

2:04:14So I don't don't believe you can expend. public funds on private roads. Um what we had talked about in the past was that A C D D being a governmental entity Could enter into an interlocal agreement with the county to take over the roads if both sides agreed to that. that didn't they would still be public roads whether they were in the C D D or would not be in the C D D Um

2:04:45the Folks who live on private roads are paying into the MSTU because it is not ju this MSTU covers roads that are not just those private access roads but are roads that they would utilize outside their development. Right, okay.

2:05:03That's

2:05:03my thought. Thank you, Claire.

2:05:10is about sidewalks and um kids having a safe way to get to school and I I'm I'm with you guys you know, I I'm somewhere in the middle as well, um between the nineteen point four Um, I don't know if I'm comfortable around six, maybe six to eight. Um, but somewhere in there so we could help get that problem resolved as well. Um, because some of that money will go towards sidewalks, so

2:05:41Um Mr. Chairman Mariano. Didn't we take the money for uh arterials and collectors and add it into this pile? So at six million million a year, I can't imagine you paving anything more than arterials and collectors.

2:05:57Yeah, yeah. Public Works has a lane mile. I believe the original plan was somewhere around a hundred and forty lane miles of road, which would be a mixture of local roads, arterials, and collectors. Our current program I I at Brantford is what, three to five million annually on the

2:06:12There won't be anything left for local road for local roads if

2:06:14we're actually approximately five. So anything anything close to there would mean that we probably would not. Touch local roads. What we would do is uh you know, Public Works has a plan to spend a majority of the funds in terms of rejuvenation. So rejuvenating roads is much less expensive, and that that's similar to changing the oil on your car, right? So it's it's cheaper preventative maintenance. However, there are still a number of roads uh that you see that require uh mill and overlays. Uh we just approved uh microsurfacing contracts. Tax, which again, they're they're

2:06:44all progressively more expensive. So as I mentioned before, you have a two billion dollar. issue when it comes to roads and road paving estimated in in the county uh to maintain them, uh the level of funding will simply dictate how fast we get to them.