This afternoon, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and her Revenue & Finance Director, Bonnie Wise, briefed members of the City Council on the city's financial status going into the 2011 fiscal year. The outlook: cut over $27.5 million by October 1.
Such meetings over the past few years have become commonplace at City Hall. In the past three years, the city has cut $92 million from its operations and over 500 employee, but Iorio said today that this next $27 million could be the toughest yet.
"It's really rather amazing that we've had $92 million of cuts and we really haven't had people lined up at your council meetings week after week talking about things," she told six of the council members seated around a table (John Dingfelder was absent). "But this next $27 million, you may hear more," she warned.
Wise said that the assumptions are that property taxes will drop 8.5% in the coming year, and there could be a sales tax decline of $10 million as well accounting for the reduced money coming in.
