South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Coronavirus halts Fort Lauderdale projects
FORT LAUDERDALE – Fort Lauderdale officials are scrambling to seal a fiscal hole that was impossible to predict when the budget was set last year — a $34 million shortfall related to the coronavirus pandemic.
City coffers took a massive hit across the board, with sales tax and other revenues plummeting as businesses across town closed and downtown office buildings went dark.
The city’s entire budget of $833 million got dinged by $34 million. And the $374 million general fund used to run day-today operations took a $19 million hit.
There is a silver lining: Fort Lauderdale, unlike other cities across the nation, is not planning layoffs, furloughs or service cuts to balance this year’s budget. And property owners skittish about the coming fiscal year likely won’t see a hike in their municipal tax rate.
The bad news: Some major capital projects are being delayed. City officials say they have no choice.
“They’re not disappearing,” Vice Mayor Steve Glassman said. “They’re just being put on hold.”
Projects put on the back burner include
a public works joint facility projected to cost $2 million; $1 million in sidewalk and paver replacements; and a new $500,000 boat ramp at George English Park.
Plans to build a new fire substation downtown will also have to wait, saving the city $2 million.
Fort Lauderdale will save another $5 million due to delays in a beach renourishment project planned by the Army Corps of Engineers to replenish sand lost during Hurricane Irma.
Projects scrapped altogether include a
$200,000 renovation and $750,000 air conditioning system at the police station, plus $500,000 in pretty lighting for a water tower.
With the city forced to take a hatchet to the budget, some are wondering whether they’ll see a hike in the city’s property tax rate next fiscal year.
The rate has not changed in 13 years, remaining stable at $412 per $100,000 assessed property value — one of the lowest in the county.
Commissioners meet July 7 to set a maximum tax rate for next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
But at least two members of the commission say they have no interest in a tax hike.
“We’re going to live with what we have and we are going to be able to make ends meet,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
Glassman says he doesn’t think the city can handle a tax hike with all that’s going on.
“When people are hurting and businesses are going out of business, this is not the right time to raise property taxes,” he said. “Many people are struggling with being laid off. Business owners don’t know if they’re going to survive.”
City Manager Chris Lagerbloom has told commissioners he can make things work next year without a property tax increase. But that may change in 2022.
“We do see that on the horizon,” Lagerbloom said.
In the past few months, Lagerbloom and his team have gotten a crash course on budgeting in the middle of a pandemic.
“I’m not alone,” he said. “Every Thursday I have a conference call with the other
30 city managers in Broward County. We shared ideas and concepts. Talk about what we’re doing and not doing. We’re certainly not in it alone.”
In mid-April, Lagerbloom warned commissioners of looming shortfalls in this year’s budget.
Fort Lauderdale saw sales taxes and other revenues — including business taxes and fire inspection fees — decline by $5.4 million.
The city is taking in $3.2 million less in utility revenues due to reduced usage and rate reductions by FPL. There’ also a $1.3 million drop in sanitation franchise fees due to a decline in commercial volume and a $1.1 million drop in fire transport fees.
“Will we have to make changes, yes,” Trantalis said. “But we are making changes that will not impact services.”
The decline in revenues is not impacting the city’s plan to upgrade and replace its network of underground water and sewer pipes, Trantalis said.
“There’s going to be no slowdown whatsoever in our infrastructure projects,” he said. “There’s no shortfall in money for these projects. And we made that promise and commitment to our residents [to fix that problem].”