Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s proposed Fiscal Year 2017 city budget includes an emphasis on improving parks and continuing business development, as well as a few nuggets for New Tampa— including a new fire station, updated playground equipment at the New Tampa Recreation Center in Tampa Palms and an intelligent transportation systems program for part of Cross Creek Blvd.
While warning that “we are not out of the woods yet” regarding the recent recession, Buckhorn painted a bright future while proposing his $905.9 million city budget to the Tampa City Council on July 21. The Council will hold public hearings on the proposed budget in September before voting on it.
Buckhorn’s budget proposal includes $175.3 million in capital improvements, including $4.72 million for Fire Station No. 23, which will be located at 20770 Trout Creek Dr., behind the AutoZone and Christian Brothers Automotive off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in the Trout Creek area.
“Something near and dear to council (member Lisa) Montelione’s heart, and this will be her last budget, so this is our gift to our friends and neighbors in the New Tampa area,’’ Buckhorn said.
Montelione, who has resigned her Council seat effective Nov. 8 to run against Republican incumbent Shawn Harrison for his Florida House District 63 seat, has championed the new fire house in her five years on the Council.
“Fire Station 23 is the one that even my predecessor had been pestering the administration about when Pam Iorio was the mayor, so that one has a long history,’’ Montelione said.
The fire station is part of the city’s $120.3-million Capital Improvement Program, which is addressing a significant amount of previously deferred infrastructure projects. The land had been acquired previously by the city, and Buckhorn said New Tampa is starting to grow again, so it’s time to finally deliver the fire house.
“Growth in New Tampa is starting to emerge again,’’ he said. “During the recession, it was virtually nothing. We recognize now that, with the anticipated entitlements and the demand for housing up in New Tampa, we needed to fulfill that obligation.”
Another fire station, No. 24, is planned for the K-Bar Ranch area off Morris Bridge Rd. in the future. It won’t be funded and built next year like No. 23, but it is on the city’s budget radar after Montelione brought light to the need for one in the K-Bar area — despite the location of Station No. 22 on Cross Creek Blvd., a mile or so west of Morris Bridge Rd.
“Included for in future years, there are planning dollars and construction dollars for Fire Station No. 24,’’ Buckhorn said. “We’ve got design dollars in there to be done as the growth continues to occur.”
Montelione said she worked with M/I Homes and the city’s Parks & Recreation Department to secure the land. She said there are long-range plans to build a 54-acre park in the K-Bar area, and she called the parks department and asked for two acres for the fire house.
“It’s all very preliminary,’’ Montelione said. “I would think it would be 2019 before it comes out of the ground, but it’s on the radar so that’s good.”
Montelione said she is still combing over the budget, and while pleased to see the fire station finally getting built, “I always want to have more for New Tampa. There are a couple of things I’ve worked on for a long, long, long time and they’re here, and there are things I wish I were in here (that) are not.”
The New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC) will be getting updated playground equipment in the proposed budget. The Tampa City Council has voted twice in five years to bypass expansion of the NTRC that had previously been budgeted, including a Feb. 4 vote to spend the money budgeted for the Rec Center to fix the Cuscaden Park pool in Ybor City.
“Still no expansion, and I’m still upset about that,’’ Montelione said.
Also in the proposed budget, Cross Creek Blvd. from W. Cory Lake Blvd. to Morris Bridge Rd. will be outfitted with CCTV traffic monitoring cameras as part of Tampa’s intelligent transportation systems program, which monitors traffic patterns and is designed to improve transportation.
Buckhorn sounded an upbeat tone when talking about Tampa’s overall fiscal health. He cited various reports hailing the area as one of the best in the country. Money magazine listed Tampa as the “Best City In The Southeast,” Realtor.com recognized Tampa as a “Top Place To Move”, and Tampa was the only city to make Bloomberg Business Week’s “America’s Best Cities” list, to name just a few.
Buckhorn also says that the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) added 42,800 more jobs in March compared with last year, and has seen its unemployment rate drop from 9.9 percent in 2011 to its current 4.6 percent.
“If you think back to 2011, when a majority of us came to this Council, it was a very different place,’’ Buckhorn said. “It was a different country, a very different state and definitely a very different city.”
Buckhorn came into office facing a shortfall of more than $30 million. Thanks to increased property tax revenues and departmental reductions, the City was able to close its projected $9.2-million operating shortfall.
“We are not out of the woods yet,’’ Buckhorn admitted. “We are still struggling to find our footing. The resources that we have (now) are not even close to what we had in 2007.”
But, things are getting better, he added. And part of the reason for that is a streamlined permitting process that is bringing more development to the area. From Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 to FY2016, the city permitted nearly $10 billion worth of construction. In FY2016 alone, permitted projects were projected at $2.3 billion. And, for FY2017, $7.5 billion is projected.
“We said from day one that we can’t cut our way out of the recession,” Buckhorn said. “We have to grow our way out of the recession and that’s why we streamlined the permitting process. Heretofore, we were not competitive. People did not want to come do business with us because the regulatory process was so burdensome. That doesn’t exist today, and we’ve become a model of how to permit.”
To view Mayor Buckhorn’s entire proposed FY2017 budget, please visit TampaGov.net/Budget.
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