County hopes to keep services

Hillsborough County commissioners start work today on next year's fiscal budget, once again trying to save popular services from devastating budget cuts.

Property tax collections this year are expected to be down $56 million, or 8 percent less than last year. The decrease reflects another disastrous year for local real estate sales, as foreclosures clogged the market and property values plummeted.

Hillsborough budgets are on a two-year cycle. County administrators have tentatively balanced the fiscal 2011 budget, but commissioners won't adopt a finished product until September. The proposed budget they now will be working with includes about $20 million in cuts to county departments and nonprofit organizations that serve the sick, poor, elderly and children.

"We've balanced the budget for 2011, but there are implications for services," said Eric Johnson, county management services director. "We're going to do everything we can to lessen those impacts."

For instance, commissioners will look for $1.14 million to restore proposed cuts next year to the Children Services Department, which provides Head Start programs and residential services for troubled children.

Nonprofit organizations looking at reduced funding next year include the YMCA; the Family Justice Center, which works to improve the lives of family violence victims; Tampa Lighthouse for the Blind; and Seniors in Service, which helps seniors serve as foster grandparents and assists frail elderly people in their homes.

Last spring, county commissioners started work on the budget facing a $140 million deficit. They originally considered cuts to parks, after-school programs and animal services. But they were able to restore most of the services through increased fees, reduced hours of operation, federal grants and by laying off hundreds of employees. Johnson said as many as 157 more county jobs are at risk in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

But the commissioners, some of whom are either running for re-election or for new offices in November, don't want to see a replay of last year, when angry residents packed public meetings, demanding that proposed cuts be restored.

Property values have fallen three straight years from their peak in 2006. Unlike 2007 and 2008, when residential values provided most of the downward impetus, last year saw huge declines in commercial values, said Warren Weathers, chief deputy property appraiser.

Tax assessments this year are based on a snapshot of property sales as of Jan. 1. Owners learn what their property tax payments will be in August when they get their truth in millage, or TRIM, notices. But the property appraiser's office gives local governments an early look in June at what they can expect in property tax collections.

Commissioners will hold their budget workshop from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. today on the second floor of the Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd.