Although Bob Buckhorn has been Mayor of Tampa for 16 months now, there's still a gratitude of debt he owes his predecessor, Pam Iorio.
That's because as Buckhorn worked with city staff over the past few months to overcome a $27 million deficit, he had the ability to do so without raising taxes or laying off personnel, despite the fact that the numbers were still coming up over $8 million short.
But because of a deep set of reserves built up during Iorio's two-terms in office, he announced today that he was taking $8.7 million of those reserves to balance the budget. That comes on top of the $6 million the mayor dipped into reserves last year to overcome a $34 million deficit.
"That is not the preferred option, but in this case it's the only option," he told the City Council.
Even with over $14 million drained from reserves the past two years, the city still maintains a fund balance of 27 percent for total expenditures, which city budget director Sonya Little said was "very positive" compared to other cities and counties that she has monitored. Little says not many of those municipalities have fund balances in excess of 20 percent.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2012.