A Florida city council’s budget season hasn’t even started,
but some early season fireworks are on display already, with some resistance
being shown by a familiar source.
According to the Financial
News and Daily Record, the property appraiser’s budget in Jacksonville,
Fla., includes more than $365,000 this year for merit pool and competitive pay
adjustments for its employees, which doesn’t please the majority members of the
council’s Finance Committee.
Leading the charge was John Crescimbeni, who said he
struggles each year with budgets from constitutional officers and the
independent authorities that have built-in pay increases of some form for their
employees.
Pay cuts city employees took in 2010 haven’t been restored,
he said, and increases haven’t been proposed. Other council members agreed with
Crescimbeni’s concern.
“We’re kind of in a box with this budget,” Crescimbeni said.
Mayor Lenny Curry’s group rejected pay increases in the
budget, with the exception of the property appraiser because of a timing issue.
Across the state, property appraiser offices need their
budgets to be approved by the state’s Department of Revenue. Duval County Property
Appraiser Jerry Holland told the group his office budgets were submitted in May,
receiving tentative approval. It stays that way until Aug. 15, when appeals can
be processed.
The same type of issue happened last year with the office,
which then was headed by Jim Overton. His $9.78 million budget was approved by
the state, while former Mayor Alvin Brown submitted a $9.68 million budget. The
one the Finance Committee recommended was $9.48 million, after cuts similar
cuts were sought.
That dispute took place in September — just a few weeks
before the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year —and was headed toward an appeal
before the state’s Florida Administration Commission. But with Overton wanting
to spend $100,000 for outside counsel, a compromise was found and the appeal
bill withdrawn.
Holland told the group his office’s budget increase was
meant for productivity and efficiency. The increases would keep his employees
from going to better-paying appraisal jobs in other counties and the private
sector, while also rewarding productivity in roles that bring revenue to the
city.
His office also wants three additional hires in the area of
homestead exemption fraud, which he said he believes can bring a four-to-one
return on investment. The committee kept those hires in Holland’s budget,
totaling about $188,000, but disagreed with the bumps in pay for others.
Holland made his feelings clear as far as his ability to
live with the city’s decision to amend his budget.
“I will be appealing your decision,” he told the committee.