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Port Richey's vice mayor and city manager differ on counting funds from an unapproved property sale.
By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 14, 2002
PORT RICHEY -- The budget given to the Port Richey City Council on Tuesday night is balanced, but that doesn't mean everyone is happy.
Council members didn't even get into the meat of the budget: They spent more than an hour on the revenue side of the ledger without focusing on the spending side. But Vice Mayor Pat Guttman warned City Manager Vince Lupo that she wasn't pleased with some spending and with Lupo using money from a property sale that wasn't yet approved to balance the budget.
Lupo shot back that the council has its "head in the sand" about raising taxes, and he's having to use the land sale to keep taxes "artificially" low. Last month, the council rejected a property tax increase Lupo sought.
"You can't continue to say, "I'm going to run this year; don't raise taxes,' " Lupo said. "You can't do that anymore.
"We're working with what we have. I can't stretch it anymore than I already have."
The $3.2-million general budget given to the council spends nearly a third less than last year's, largely because of last year's budget being swollen with one-time grant funds.
But this budget was a bit tougher for city administrators because of increases in insurance costs and the fact that the diversion of some property tax funds to community redevelopment efforts left a $200,000 gap in the preliminary budget. But Lupo said the budget was balanced, despite $80,000 in new funds taken away from the general budget for future redevelopment.
"It's pinched our toes a bit," Lupo said of the redevelopment efforts. "We knew going into the community redevelopment program it was going to pinch us initially. But the benefits far outweigh these minor inconveniences."
Lou Clini, the assistant to the city manager, said most of the shortfall is covered by selling the city's property near Wal-Mart. The city recently got an offer for $600,000 for the property.
The city got the property as part of a land swap in 2000 when the city gave up its old city hall, which sat where Wal-Mart is now, in exchange for the property.
Most of the cuts in the budget come from small line items: computer purchases and equipment requests.
The Police Department, strained by an increase in calls to Wal-Mart at Ridge Road and U.S. 19, is facing proposed budget cuts of 3 percent. A part-time clerk's job will be eliminated, and computer and equipment funds will be cut.
A big part of the increases in work-force costs comes in the area of health insurance. For instance, City Clerk Shirley Dresch will receive about $1,400 more next year, a 3.6 percent raise to give her a salary of $40,495. Her insurance, however, will cost the city $775 more, a 26 percent increase.
Later this month, the council will have another workshop on the budget and will likely discuss increasing utility rates to cover increasing costs from bulk water purchases from New Port Richey.
-- Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.