The July 6th, 2017 Brooksville City Council Meeting ended with a budget update. Interim City Manager Lyndon Bonner called on Finance Director James Lasch to present estimations of the 2018 fiscal year with and without changes to the millage rates and expenditures. After introducing the issue of “being $600,000 upside down”, Mr. Bonner answered the “how did we get here” question by saying, “Last year, a number of reserves were used to fund this year’s budget, and those reserves are no longer available.”
Mr. Lasch reported that reserves at the end of 2017 are estimated to be $548,267, which depends on additional new hires and other capital expenses, which could decrease the reserve. A projected 2018 budget using the current expenditures and millage rate will result in reserves with a negative of -$68,230.
“We’ve spent into the reserves too deep”, Bonner said. “We are going to have to look at some of the things that haven’t been started for this year and stop them.”
Mr. Bonner “I’m at the point where I’m going to have to make some serious changes to your current year budget.” He went on to say, “It has just been an ongoing situation where the economy eroded a lot of municipal and county governments, and now it’s our turn to figure this out.”
During the update, it was estimated that millage increase to 8.22 will result in an estimated reserve balance of $545,978 for 2018. Bonner indicated that increasing the millage rate was something he’d rather avoid.
Mr. Bonner addressed all present, saying, “over the next three to four weeks you’re going to be getting emails saying ‘here’s one (project) to stop’ … I don’t have a whole lot of choice, and now’s the time when you want me to do what I have to do, which is get you back to that million dollar range … that really only gets us to a fund balance, it doesn’t address capital, it doesn’t address raises and it doesn’t address next year’s increased costs, which we know are coming.”
Mayor Robert Battista asked Finance Director James Lasch about drawing principal from an investment portfolio “to cushion our ride over the next year or two,” rather than increase the millage rate. Mr. Lasch indicated this may not be a viable or complete solution.
Mr. Bonner reiterated that “we need to make some serious adjustments to the budget in the current year, right now.” Over the next few weeks, Mr. Bonner will be meeting with the leaders of several departments to determine where the cuts will be made.