First, I am not an accountant. I’m just the person who took City Council serious when they asked if anyone had any ideas after they voted down the mayor’s proposed property tax increase. I’ve been trying to understand it better ever since. And from that experience I contend a city budget should be transparent and accessible to everyone. You shouldn’t need to be an accountant to understand the basics of how the city functions on a finacial level. And I do believe the city is transparent. It’s unwieldy at times, but putting the budget on OpenGov was a good first step. You can view Capital Improvement Budgets going back to FY2022. Which gets us to the reimbursement resolution.
The mysterious “reimbursement resolution”. While a reimbursement resolution relates to bonding, it is purely a procedural step. Spoiler alert—this isn’t authorizing new spending. That $235 million dollars is what City Councils have approved in the budget to be paid for with bonding since 2022. 3 fiscal years. Some of it, like the $35 million Fair Oaks East Tampa Rec Complex are nearing completion. Others, like 5 fire stations and a relocation of the TFR fleet and supply warehouse, are still conceptual in nature. But all have been approved by a majority of the City Council for that fiscal year.
As I wrote in the weekly preview
So a reimbursement resolution is simply a way for the city to say to the IRS, “hey, eventually we plan on issuing bonds on all these projects not to exceed X amount.” That’s it. It’s not an obligation to actually issue the bond or does it obligate the city to do anything really. What it does allow is for the city to use short term debt or spend out of pocket and then “reimburse” ourselves when the bond is actually issued. But you can’t spend out of pocket on a project for 3 years and then say, “hey, after all, we want to issue bonds to pay for this and use what we’ve spent on something else.” That’s in essence what this step prevents.
Background
[The two lists are from the summary sheet for item 73 in Onbase. TFR = Tampa Fire Rescue]
It started with a reimbursement resolution for $80 million in 2022. The list of projects “covered” under that resolution included:
- Tampa Convention Center Renovations, Phase II
- Convention Center Electrical Upgrades
- Convention Center Fire Suppression Repairs and Upgrades
- Convention Center HVAC Repairs and Upgrades
- Convention Center Facility Lighting Upgrades
- Convention Center Structural Repairs and Improvements
- Customer Service Center Management System
- Dimensions Time Keeping and Analytics
- East Tampa Recreational Complex
- Fleet Maintenance Decentralization – 40th Street
- Hanna Avenue Government Center
- Lower Peninsula Watershed – Southeast Region
- OnBase Agenda and Documents Management System
- Public Safety Training Facilities
- TPD Howard Avenue Annex Building (formerly “Relocation of TPD Impound Facility and Offices”)
- Sulphur Springs Pool Improvements
- Tampa Police Department Headquarters Improvements
- TFR Maintenance/Supply Shop
- TFR Burn Simulator & Skills Tower
- TFR Fire Station No. 24
Last year, Council approved another reimbursement resolution for $50 million for:
- TFR Maintenance/Supply Shop
- TFR Fire Station No. 24
The administration is now asking to combine those 2 resolution into a 3rd $235 resolution adding $105 million more to include :
- FS No 6 Expansion and Property Acquisition
- Fire Station 9
- Fire Station 10
- K-Bar Ranch Park
- Guida House Renovation
- Safe Streets 2022
- Safe Streets 2023
- Unite Ashley
- Palmetto Beach BRIC
- Tampa Multi-Modal Network and Safety Improvements
This is the point I remind everyone all of this has been previously approved by a City Council. They approved a total of $116 million in TFR projects. So $66 million of the of the $105 million is TFR. $26 million of that I believe is for the already approved West River Walk project (Tampa Multi-Modal Network and Safety Improvements). Then you’re breaking down $13 million over Ashley Dr and a couple a couple of smaller projects. I’m not sure where paying for the TPD Howard Ave Annex fits into this because that was $40 million. The original project budgeted under the 2022 reimbursement resolution was a fraction of the new price tag. When I checked last year, $78 million of the $80 had been spent.
Minus a couple of changes to the Parking budget (re-programming $1.5 million for Route 1 fare-free pilot and removing a “smart parking” project), Council didn’t have much discussion about the CIP last year, it was approved mostly as written by the mayor. There isn’t really a system for Council to propose and track budget amendments. If we want a truly independent legislative body, we need to have a proper budget process where things get hammered out and voted on before the budget is adopted, not hashed out months if not years later. Or behind closed doors. But I digress.
That said, I do have questions about why the admin wants to combine all three resolutions into one with a huge list of projects. I think smaller, more discreet resolutions binding a set amount of money to specific projects would better. I’m ok with all TFR projects being on the same reimbursement resolution. I couldn’t understand why Council member Viera made a huge deal over the first one and wound up cutting out the other projects. It started as a single resolution to cover all of the approved TFR projects. But because of not understanding what the resolution really meant, it was a debacle. And ground still hasn’t been broken.
My concern is that by putting all of those projects together under one list it will make it sound like that is paying for all of the costs for those projects. Looks more impressive. But as we learned when fire station 24 and TFR maintenance & supply was on the first $80 million resolution, that doesn’t mean the $80 million includes the full project cost. Otherwise we wouldn’t have needed to approve another $50 million last year. I’m not suggesting one resolution per project, but I think something needs to be done to put a cap on some of these projects.
