Tallahassee city commissioners listened Wednesday to a presentation by Robert Wigen, director of resource management. He outlined the city’s new millage rate, a new health care contract with CHSP, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, and amendments for recent grant revenues.
The budget director proposed two public hearings on the fiscal year 2025 operating budget, which totals $908 million, and the $302 million capital improvement plan.
Every year, the city updates its five-year capital improvement plan, which outlines how much will be spent during the next fiscal year on community projects.
Mayor John Dailey said, “The City of Tallahassee has an absolutely incredible budget process. We actually work on our budget probably 10 months out of the year. We have a dedicated nationally award-winning team whose focus is nothing but putting a $1.2 billion dollar balanced budget to bring to us.”
The budget plan also has connections with the city’s new school zone speed enforcement.
This is a tried-and-true way to cut down on speeding around schools and make the area safer for everyone walking.
In addition to realizing that enforcement will have an impact and lower the volume of speeding through school zones and the number of fines paid over time, the Tallahassee Police Department’s experience testing across 29 school zones to determine eligibility to initiate the program helped identify the additional revenue, as directed by law, for school speed zones.
More than 47,000 violations were observed during the study, according to the agenda.
Approximately $503,701 was estimated in citations which is more revenue for the upcoming fiscal year. The city will receive $60 of each $100 fine; the vendor’s fee to administer the program is $21.90 per violation, which will be deducted from the city’s share of the program revenue. If there were 47,000 violations with a $100 fine each, the total money would be $4.7 million, of which $2.82 million would be given to the city.
But it is expected that fines will only be imposed on partial violations. A fine will only be charged for violations that take place between 30 minutes prior to and 30 minutes following school hours. Furthermore, the individual charged with the fine can fight the citation and may be exempt from paying it. Nonetheless, the city will use those funds to enhance the community.
According to the meeting agenda, the funding plan will support existing staffing, services and priority investments in the police department, parks, recreation and neighborhood affairs, housing and community resilience, public infrastructure, and community beautification.
“We start the fiscal year on October 1,” Dailey said. “We start the budgeting process beginning of the new calendar year, in January. We work in the spring, we work in the summer, we work through the fall. It’s a process that works and I’m proud of it.”
However, some residents dislike the budget plan. Members of the Tallahassee Community Action Committee shared their concerns during Wednesday’s meeting. They claimed that the city’s funding will only go toward TPD and not the community.
Joelle Nunez, a member of the TCAC, told commissioners,“I think the budget plan is pretty bad,honestly. There is a lot of money, very disproportionate amount of money going toward the Tallahassee Police Department and particularly the construction of a new police building, much larger than the existing police Station.”
Nunez said no money is designated for the arts and Railroad Square is still struggling since the May tornadoesdamaged that area of town.
Also, Tallahassee firefighters, who have been demanding raises for a year, remain in contract negotiations with the city.
The City Commission is scheduled to act on the millage rate and budget resolutions at the final public hearing on Sept. 25.