As Lakeland city managers begin preparing a budget for 2022, their bosses — the City Commission — have weighed in with a list of their priorities for next year. Top of their list were increasing affordable housing, redeveloping downtown, and reducing the city’s subsidy to the RP Funding Center.
Commissioners held a one-day budget retreat last month to give input to their top managers and fiscal staff before they create next year’s budget. In the past, similar retreats weren’t held until city departments had already submitted budget requests, leading commissioners to feel they had little meaningful input in a budget that was largely set.
View the budget retreat agenda and video of the meeting at the end of this article.
At the start of the retreat, commissioners individually listed their top concerns, compiling a list of 34 issues. Later in the day they individually ranked the 34 issues; their ranking sheets were compiled and a priority list emerged. The top 10 were:
1. Affordable housing: Commissioners asked their staff to increase funding for affordable housing initiatives from $500,000 to $750,000. The aim is to increase the stock of housing for residents below the area’s median income through partnerships with private developers.
2. Downtown redevelopment: The city envisions budgeting $875,000 for incentives aimed at attracting manufacturing businesses and $600,000 in downtown new-business incentives that would be overseen by the Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency.
3. Reduce RP Funding Center Subsidy: Commissioners decided to classify the entertainment-and-convention complex as a governmental fund instead of an enterprise fund. As a result, an estimated $912,431 that the RP Funding would have paid to other city departments for services will be absorbed by those departments. This accounting change reduces the fiscal year 2021 subsidy for the RP Funding Center from $4.16 million to $3.25 million. In addition, the RP Funding Center has planned $573,000 in expense reductions.
4. Overdue infrastructure projects: Commissioners want to accelerate work on both maintenance of existing infrastructure — roads, sidewalks, bridges, water and sewer pipes, utility lines, etc. — as well as prepare for coming growth. City Manager Shawn Sherrouse said he anticipates that federal stimulus funds will be earmarked for infrastructure and his staff will pinpoint projects for those funds.
5. Downtown West: The city has focused more attention in the last year or so on developing the area around the RP Funding Center, which is increasingly being called Downtown West. The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce is planning a business resource center there, and a transit hub is also envisioned for the area.
6. Pedestrian highline to Downtown West: Commissioners would like to see planning start for a “highline” pedestrian walkway to allow people to cross the CSX railroad tracks between Downtown West and new development to the north, including Bonnet Springs Park and a planned multi-use development on reclaimed land that previously held the Florida Tile plant. This supersedes earlier plans for a highline walkway east of the downtown core that had been envisioned when an area just east of the Lakeland Police Department was thought to be the spot for a transportation hub.
7. Commission ombudsman: Commissioners say that their part-time jobs have increased in complexity as the city grows and their duties demand more of their time. They would like to assign a staff person to help coordinate schedules and keep them informed of upcoming events, something they say is complicated by the fact that Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law precludes them from discussing business outside of public meetings.
8. Downtown catalyst funds: The city has set aside just over $1 million for development incentives related to a downtown master plan created in 2018-19. The original plan conceived of the area around the RP Funding Center as a sports and entertainment district, but the commission has grown that vision into a more expansive Downtown West, Sherrouse noted.
9. Airport commercial service backstop: When commissioners decided in 2019 to aggressively pursue commercial airline service at Lakeland Linder Airport, they reserved a $1 million “backstop” to be used as a revenue guarantee in the airline’s first year. The city was joined by Polk County, which also committed $1 million to the fund, and Publix Super Markets, which pledged $150,000. After Covid interrupted airline recruitment efforts last year, the $1 million was moved from reserve to surplus. Commissioners decided to move the funds back to reserve as a demonstration of their commitment to airline service.
10. Manufacturing incentives: Funds for the manufacturing incentives that were ranked at No. 10 are incorporated in the No. 2 downtown redevelopment priority, Sherrouse said.
At the start of the retreat, city Finance Director Mike Brossart listed several assumptions being made in developing the fiscal year 2022 budget:
- Collective property values will grow 6%, compared with 8.24% for the current year.
- Operating expenses will grow 1.5%, compared with 0 growth in the current year.
- City employees will receive across-the-board raises of 1.5% and merit increases of up to 2.5%, compared with no raises in the current year.
- Health insurance costs to the city will increase 1%, compared with no increase this year.
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