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Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Page 55 funds? That would use it up. Without a [property tax] rate increase, it will come out of the general fund.��� ���I���m worried about raiding the revenue stabilization funds totally,��� said Mayor Suzanne Atwell. ���I think the millage needs to be on the table. I want a real, balanced approach.��� Lege said he would come back with ways to pare the remaining $1.3 million imbalance. Commissioner Paul Caragiulo wondered City Commissioner Shannon Snyder/Photo about the impact of larger personnel reducby Norman Schimmel tions. ���We���re now at 12. What would 20 look Atwell faces five competitors in the March 12 like?��� he asked. balloting. Brown said it was unwise to take wild stabs in the dark. ���If you don���t pinpoint where the employees come from, the public won���t understand the service reductions. When you do start to identify specific areas, that raises the angst in that area.��� Snyder added, ���You end up producing fear among employees. If you���re at the bottom of the ladder, you start looking around.��� ���When we come back in July,��� said Lyons, ���It will be jobs versus a tax increase.��� As a lame-duck commissioner, Turner, too, was free to speak his mind. ���You have an 18-month to three-year challenge to renegotiate ��� contracts to change the way we do business. Management should come back with a wish list for union contracts. Take-home cars [for police] ��� we���re still talking about it,��� he ���You have to do it with attrition,��� said Vice said. ���This summer sets the stage for balancMayor Willie Shaw. ���Otherwise, you do create ing the budget in the later years as well.��� fear.��� Revenues are actually inching upward after ���I believe the thing that will be real to our con- years of decline. The property tax revenue is stituents is a tax increase,��� said Turner. ���They down $6 million from its peak in 2008, but it won���t understand hypothetical reductions in is expected to creep up $150,000 in FY14 as a service. Our employees would understand it result of an estimated 1.5 percent increase in right away, so identifying specific slots is not property tax valuations. Other taxes ��� frangoing to be productive.��� chise fees, excise and sales taxes and revenue sharing from the state ��� are all trending up The commissioners will hold a second budslightly. get workshop in July. One or perhaps two of the five commissioners could be replaced by The proverbial elephant in the budget is the then. Turner is not running for re-election, and cost of police, fire and general employee pen-