Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhornâs proposed Fiscal Year 2017 city budget includes an emphasis on improving parks and continuing business development, as well as a few nuggets for New Tampaâ 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 âwe are not out of the woods yetâ 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.
Buckhornâs 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.
âSomething near and dear to council (member Lisa) Montelioneâs heart, and this will be her last budget, so this is our gift to our friends and neighbors in the New Tampa area,ââ 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.
âFire 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,ââ Montelione said.
The fire station is part of the cityâs $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 itâs time to finally deliver the fire house.
âGrowth in New Tampa is starting to emerge again,ââ he said. âDuring 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.â
Another fire station, No. 24, is planned for the K-Bar Ranch area off Morris Bridge Rd. in the future. It wonât be funded and built next year like No. 23, but it is on the cityâs budget radar after Montelione brought light to the need for one in the K-Bar area â despite the location of Station No. 22 on Cross Creek Blvd., a mile or so west of Morris Bridge Rd.
âIncluded for in future years, there are planning dollars and construction dollars for Fire Station No. 24,ââ Buckhorn said. âWeâve got design dollars in there to be done as the growth continues to occur.â
Montelione said she worked with M/I Homes and the cityâs 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.
âItâs all very preliminary,ââ Montelione said. âI would think it would be 2019 before it comes out of the ground, but itâs on the radar so thatâs good.â
Montelione said she is still combing over the budget, and while pleased to see the fire station finally getting built, âI always want to have more for New Tampa. There are a couple of things Iâve worked on for a long, long, long time and theyâre here, and there are things I wish I were in here (that) are not.â
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.
âStill no expansion, and Iâm still upset about that,ââ 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 Tampaâs intelligent transportation systems program, which monitors traffic patterns and is designed to improve transportation.
Buckhorn sounded an upbeat tone when talking about Tampaâs overall fiscal health. He cited various reports hailing the area as one of the best in the country. Money magazine listed Tampa as the âBest City In The Southeast,â Realtor.com recognized Tampa as a âTop Place To Moveâ, and Tampa was the only city to make Bloomberg Business Weekâs âAmericaâs Best Citiesâ 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.
âIf you think back to 2011, when a majority of us came to this Council, it was a very different place,ââ Buckhorn said. âIt was a different country, a very different state and definitely a very different city.â
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.
âWe are not out of the woods yet,ââ Buckhorn admitted. âWe are still struggling to find our footing. The resources that we have (now) are not even close to what we had in 2007.â
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.
âWe said from day one that we canât cut our way out of the recession,â Buckhorn said. âWe have to grow our way out of the recession and thatâs 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 doesnât exist today, and weâve become a model of how to permit.â
To view Mayor Buckhornâs entire proposed FY2017 budget, please visit TampaGov.net/Budget.