Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/110922
Sarasota News Leader February 22, 2013 Page 19 ously, we have some hard realities, and the commission will have to rely on staff for recommendations. Ultimately, we have to lead it and make the decisions. I haven���t spoken to one current or former commissioner who hasn���t said, ���There���s a big learning curve. You can say things and talk in platitudes on the campaign trail, but when you get in the seat and speak with city staff, you���ll see some harsh realities.��� So you would cut services? The city continues to run a deficit in its annual budget, making up the difference from reserves. Will you raise taxes, cut services or continue tapping into savings? There are things we could do right now that would save us significant amounts of money. Theisen: If you want to call that a service, I suppose so. You could call it a service but it���s a little bit of a distraction. I guess you could say I would cut services. ��������� The past six years, taxes went down because assessments went down. We have We have to work hard to meet that learning had six successive years of tax cuts. Why curve, so when city staff advises us, if we would I not want to stabilize my taxes? don���t know anything, we���ll have to learn and accept their advice. We���ll listen, but ultimately Dorfman: I think we���re going to get a tax inwe have to lead. That���s what we were elected crease anyway, because I think the [property] values are going to go up; the economy���s startto do: to lead the way. ing to turn around. As the natural growth of The city manager won���t be our boss. We���ll be the economy starts to shift into an up-mode his boss. instead of this retraction, retreat, it���s going to ��������� go the other way. That will come naturally. Theisen: I don���t think they���re going to be able to do that much longer without something. My take on it ��� and I���ve researched this ��� there���s a lot of things in the budget that are not core government services. Can you give an example? Lumpkin: You���re right. Somehow we have to stop the bleeding. Put it this way: I���ll be slow to raising taxes, but the reality is, this might be the least painful time to raise taxes for the reasons you stated, because for all of us, our tax bill has gone down significantly. If our property values were where we���d want them to be, we would be paying higher taxes. I���m not saying bring them up to where our highest property values were, even if we came up part of the way, it would slow the bleeding. Theisen: They do an awful lot of landscaping. I���ll look at it one day, and it will be changed the next day. They were both fine, nice little flowerbeds, but completely changed. It���s go- We���re in a tough spot. We may have to do what ing from beautiful to beautiful, and so what? we may have to do. That is really an obvious example. But there ��������� are others too.