Today our City Council began the process
of crafting a balanced budget for the 2010/2011 fiscal year
by holding the first in a series of budget workshops.
It’s clear we are entering another
challenging budget period as our City government contends
with the ongoing effects of the global recession. Early
estimates indicate we must overcome a "gap" of about 49.7
million dollars due to declining revenues and increasing
costs. The goal of this workshop was to clearly and publicly
outline the challenge before us and then identify the
strategy for overcoming that challenge.
The first step in this plan includes my
direction that we should not raise taxes in order to bridge
this gap.
Today, I announced I would not support
raising the millage rate as part of our effort to overcome
this budget gap. In fact, by keeping the millage rate where
it is we will effectively be putting money back
into the pockets of a vast majority of our residents at a
time when it’s needed most.
Further, I believe in the midst of these
tough times, it’s more than ever the responsibility of our
government to bear the burden and "live on less," even
though that means our City government will have to make some
very difficult decisions about what programs and services to
fund.
In the months ahead, our City will
prioritize what functions our citizens depend on the most
and then identify which programs and services we can
potentially reduce or eliminate. As part of this cost
cutting process, we are, once again, offering a potential
voluntary separation option to eligible City employees.
As part of my commitment to keeping
residents informed, you can expect updates as we move toward
adopting a final FY 2010/2011 budget in September. As
always, I look forward to working with you as we meet the
challenges of these tough financial times and continue our
collective effort to ensure long term prosperity for our
community.
Sincerely,
Buddy Dyer
Mayor
