NEW PORT RICHEY - City Council members trying to hash out how to make up for a $1.2-million budget shortfall next year weighed their options Tuesday night.
Fire and street light service fees. A tax increase. Turning over the city library to Pasco County to run.
None of them won over the crowd.
About 30 people attended the budget work session. Some voiced their disapproval with turning over the library, saying it is a community gathering place, historical repository and city treasure.
"I think it would be a great loss to turn the library over to the county. It would lose its identity," said Carmine Bell, a professor at Pasco-Hernando Community College and a resident of the city.
Others were opposed to fees they said would penalize those unable to afford them.
"Something like fees for service would not be equal," said city resident Marilynn deChamps.
New Port Richey needs to balance a $12-million general fund budget for 2003-2004. The budget pays for items such as police, fire, the library, parks and recreation. Undesignated reserve money, which the city has relied on in past years to make up for shortfalls, has shrunk to less than $200,000.
Council members are reviewing whether to implement fees for fire protection and street light service by Oct. 1 - the beginning of the fiscal year.
A vote on the issue is set for Aug. 19 and Sept. 2. The fees would affect all property owners, businesses and nonprofits. Only schools would be exempt.
City officials have invited 100 of the city's largest businesses and nonprofit organizations to a July 29 meeting on the issue. City residents will soon receive mailings on what their share of the fees would be.
However, a July 11 memo from City Manager Gerald Seeber cautioned that even if fees, for example, are used to resolve the upcoming year's budget crunch, the city will still face "severe challenges in the future in meeting its operating expenses with its current base of revenues."
The use of property taxes for redevelopment leaves fewer dollars for traditional services, he said.
Seeber presented a brief review of the relationship between the general fund budget and the city's Community Redevelopment Agency at Tuesday night's workshop.
