2007 / 2008

June 16, 2007
City Hall

I am here today to present the guidelines for our balanced budget for 2007-2008.

Today’s workshop is an overview of our priorities in developing a budget that will mirror the bold and ambitious budget course you approved last year…

Our budget will ensure our City remains committed:

• To Public safety
• To Economic Opportunity and quality job growth
• To Efficient and accountable core City services
• To Promoting a “culture of conservation”; and
• To Providing leadership in the effort to protect the environment

Last year’s budget was a “defining moment” for our City.

This year’s budget is about sustaining and advancing the success we’ve worked so hard to achieve… even as we face new challenges.

Commissioners, I’d like to thank you for your continued commitment to making fiscally responsible decisions.

I’d also like to thank our dedicated City employees.  This year, their input will be essential as we find ways to be more efficient.

I want to recognize our City’s CFO, Rebecca Sutton, Deputy CFO Ray Elwell and the entire Finance department for their efforts in this process.

Our budget team made sure we were well-informed and extremely well-prepared for the budgetary challenges resulting from state-mandated property tax reform.

Changes and Challenges – A Fiscal History of Orlando

This is the fifth time I’ve presented the City Council with an annual budget.

It’s vital that I recognize this milestone.  Our current financial picture is a direct result of the prudent decisions we’ve made together in the last four years.

In 2003, this administration inherited a mid-year, 23 million dollar budget shortfall.  In the face of this record deficit, we were forced to take difficult, but necessary, steps to streamline City operations and downsize our workforce.  In the first 30 days of our administration, we balanced the budget and placed public safety as our top priority.

In 2004 and 2005 we, again, faced budget constraints along with the majority of cities in Florida.  We closed gaps while rejecting calls to raise taxes and cut core city services.  We sought better solutions and looked for ways to increase revenue by bolstering growth and investment in our City.

We reaffirmed our commitment to public safety by devoting new revenue for tools, technology and training for police and fire.

Last year, rather than talk about filling gaps, we enhanced our core City services.  We unveiled creative programs and initiatives.

• Our first job was to boost our investment in public safety.  We approved a three-year initiative to increase the strength of police and fire with 75 police officers and 45 fire personnel.  We initiated our plan to build a state of the art police training center and 3 new fire stations.
• We enhanced our core public works services and City infrastructure by updating our aging downtown sewer system, targeting graffiti and building new roads and sidewalks.
• We added permitting and planning staff, further strengthening our commitment to smart growth.

These initiatives were the culmination of four years of hard work and careful planning by this City Council.  It represented a hard-won financial victory.

Our belt tightening and forward-thinking approach paid dividends.

This year, we will maintain our financial stability in the face of a new challenge:  state-mandated budget cuts.

In June, the state legislature delivered much needed property tax relief to our residents.

That action places Orlando in what’s being called “Tier One” status, representing the lowest level of property tax revenue reduction mandated among cities and counties.

Tier one status calls for a three percent rollback in property tax revenue.

The State’s formula recognizes our prudent financial decision making.

We are not one of those cities facing a 7 or 9 percent reduction in revenue, left with little or no choice but to slash jobs and city services.

But, it doesn’t mean we are free from the impacts of state-mandated revenue reduction; so we must carefully budget to ensure our City’s future economic health.

Coupled with property tax reform and a dip in our sales tax revenue, our income picture is essentially flat from last year to this year.

The question we will begin to answer today is – how do we meet this new budget challenge while maintaining our commitment to public safety and continuing to deliver quality urban services?

We’ll start by laying out a budget process in a different manner than in the past.

Typically, the City creates its budget and then sets the millage rate to reflect that budget.

This year, the state has essentially set our millage rate for us – meaning – we now have to work backwards.

Today I will ask you to approve a preliminary millage rate that reflects the stated-mandated formula.

Our budget office has accurate revenue estimates right up to this week and they will review those numbers in a few minutes.

I have asked staff to craft our final budget using a set of carefully considered guiding principles.

The four guiding parameters and priorities are: 

First, maintain our commitment to public safety

Second, focus on our core City services

Third, find efficiencies

Fourth, Go Green, use our City’s new green initiative as a way to save money and the environment.

While we’re essentially proposing a continuation budget, we will fully fund our commitment to growth in public safety without a reduction in the level of City services.

Public Safety:  Priority Number One

Public Safety continues to be job one.

We will keep our City safe, no matter what it takes – using every resource available to combat crime in our community.

The first tenet of this budget is to ensure that year two of our multi-year, multimillion dollar public safety initiative is fully funded.

Last year we dedicated 66 million dollars toward projects that put additional police on the streets, substations in our neighborhoods, more fire and rescue units on our roads and more fire stations in our districts.

We must hold true to our commitment.

We’re already seeing the results of our investment:

• Our illegal gun bounty program is taking illegal guns off the street.
• “Operation All Hands on Deck” puts police managers, men and women who do not typically work on the street on patrol in targeted high crime areas.
• And, we’re implementing key recommendations from our SAFE Orlando Task Force

Keeping people safe is our mission.  We will not fail.

Back to Basics:  A Focus on Core City Services

Our second major budget priority is the delivery of quality urban services and dedication to accessible, accountable and transparent government.

With a continuation budget, we are maintaining our focus on what we do best:  deliver core services that enhance the lives of our citizens

These aren’t always the flashiest areas – but they are the backbone of effective local government:

• Paving Roads, filling potholes and building sidewalks
• Installing and maintaining street lights
• Providing top notch sewer service, picking up garbage and sweeping streets

My pledge today is that Orlando will not falter in its commitment to providing excellence in these services areas.

Directive to Find Efficiencies

Our third budget priority is to find efficiencies and trim our costs to bring our budget in-line with the growth we will experience.

We performed a similar process during our 2003 budget program.  This year, we will build upon proven strategies to help sharpen our “culture of conservation” in all City departments.

Our plan is not to capture savings through cutting one or two notable expenditures.

Our plan will utilize a multifaceted approach focusing on:  Efficiency, innovation and attrition to meet our budget challenges.

Our plan will require daily action.  Our most important asset, our employees, will find simple yet effective ways to increase savings.

We are already seeing suggestions that will be considered as part of our plan.

They include everything from allowing employees to voluntarily shift their schedules… to cutting out paper in favor of electronic communication.

Since 2003, we’ve made strides in reinventing the way we serve citizens, making it faster and more convenient to do business online.

We continue to use technology to make our government run more efficiently and cost effectively.

The final efficiency measure is attrition.  At any given time we have 150 to 200 unfilled positions as a result of normal attrition.

With continued prudent personnel management, we will maintain City services by keeping some of these positions open.  And, this efficiency provides a cost savings to the City.

Orlando’s Green Initiative:  Saving Money and the Environment

Fourth and finally, we will launch our environmental action agenda to transform Orlando into a leading “Florida Green City.”

It’s not only the right thing to do, but a sound decision for our citizens’ well-being and our financial future.

This is immediate and dramatic action.

We’re already converting our stop lights and street signals from incandescent bulbs to LED’s.  LED’s use 80 percent less energy.  When complete, it will mean a savings of more than 27-thousand dollars a month.

By the end of next year, our entire City fleet will “go green”.  We’ve already implemented a policy that all new automobiles and light trucks will be flex-fuel vehicles.  In 2008, all heavy trucks and off-road equipment that we purchase, the vehicles with the biggest engines that pollute the most, must meet the highest emission standards.

Most people think cars are the biggest contributors to pollution and global warming.

They’re not, buildings are, because of the tremendous amount of energy they require.

We will provide the leadership and expertise necessary to engage developers and businesses in acquiring the national standard of green … what’s known as “LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.”

We will be the spark for a sustainable building trend in Orlando.  OUC’s new administration building will be one of downtown's "greenest" developments with the latest in high tech conservation and energy efficient features.

Together with OUC and Orange County, we are also studying the feasibility of using municipal solid waste as a renewable energy source.

Last week, our City participated in the State summit on global climate change.  The message from that event is clear:  We’re on the front lines.  We must use our leadership position in central Florida to further the green effort.

I’m excited to announce today that Orlando will sign the United States Conference of Mayors Climate protection agreement as part of our green package.  We will join with other cities nationwide who have pledged to do their part in helping our environment.

These are just a few facets of a sweeping plan that will help save our environment and save money.

Closing

We’ve talked about our budget history and how far we’ve come in just a few years.

I’d like to close today, by talking about the future.

Earlier his month, I had the opportunity to showcase Orlando to a national TV audience on the CBS early show.  It was about where we’re headed as a city… our theme parks, our downtown and the people and the places that make our home so special.

I told all of America that Orlando is a great place to visit… but it’s an even better place to live.

Fulfilling that promise of greatness begins with the process of putting together a balanced budget.  It’s more than just addition and subtraction.  It’s a map for our future highlighting our priorities and promises.

I’m proud to present a budget directive today that:

• Makes careful and balanced choices
• Maintains our commitment to public safety and core city services
• And, keeps Orlando on course to becoming the next great American city of this new century

Thank you.