September 2007
Community Paper
copyright ©2007 by Community Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.


From the Desk of City Commissioner Robert Stuart

Dear College Park Neighbors,

With summer over and fall upon us, please take time to get involved in our great local schools!

In September, the City Council approved our budget for 2007-08. As I have mentioned before, we were able to continue funding the public safety initiatives recommended by Mayor Buddy Dyer as part of his platform presented last year. This means that we will add 25 new police officers and 35 new firefighters this year to support our citizens throughout our Great City.

In addition, Mayor Dyer has restructured local police coverage so that we have installed a fifth patrol division covering downtown Orlando. For our residents in College Park and District 3, this means that we have reduced the chances that officers will be pulled out of our area to support other patrol divisions. This budget was focused around three other key principles: to provide second to none core city services, to look for ways to improve efficiencies within our current operations, and to find ways to create and sustain environmental initiatives - Going Green! I am impressed with our great city staff and their commitment to providing the highest possible service to our citizens.

As part of the State Legislature’s Property Tax Reform, we were asked to roll back our Millage Rate to help provide property tax relief for our citizens. Our millage rate for next year (2007-08) is 4.9307 per $1,000 of assessed property value, 13.3% under last year’s rate and 3% under the rollback rate of 5.0879. In short, Orlando had already prepared itself by creating an efficient environment for providing city services and was recognized by our state officials for our diligent work. (For a detailed analysis of our $880 million budget, check out Orlando’s website at www.CityofOrlando.net. I have also reviewed the District 3 budget and reduced it 5.6% in order to streamline our spending and support our city-wide initiatives. During this upcoming year, it is our goal to make every effort to communicate effectively to all of District 3 through, e-mail, newsletters, district-wide forums and local papers like the College Park Community Paper!

However, I still hear, "My property taxes are too high!" A few weeks ago, Orange County Property Tax Appraiser Bill Donegan sent out preliminary tax notices to thousands of property owners in Orlando and Orange County. I hope you took a few minutes to look over it and see how your ad valorem taxes are assessed and distributed. While I personally understand the growing concern over property taxes, it surprised me to see that only 27% of my property taxes were actually paid to the City of Orlando. Almost three-quarters of my property taxes went to Orange County, Orange County Schools, St. John’s Water Management District, and the Orange County Library. All are important assets to our community. I share this information because, while your millage rate may change in small ways, the greatest "variable" is the actual value of your property. For a full evaluation of your property value, contact the Orange County Property Appraiser at (407) 836-5044 or through their website: www.ocpafl.org.

One of the projects that will continue to be funded in the upcoming budget year is the Little Lake Fairview Water Reclamation Project and the renovations of Dubsdread Golf Course. Many of you may have read recently that the project has not progressed as quickly as we had anticipated. We have, however, avoided every opportunity to increase the cost of the project and look forward to a great new golf course next year completed under budget. As we hurried to get the project started, our stormwater permits were delayed and left us missing a few weeks of the all-important Summer growing season. By the end of November, we expect to have everything planted and then we wait on Mother Nature. If everything goes as expected, we should have a wonderful grand opening in the Summer of 2008! Please look for more details in the following weeks.

Robert

Robert F. Stuart, District 3 City Commissioner
400 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: 407-246-2003; e-mail Robert.Stuart@cityoforlando.net
or check out Orlando's website (www.cityoforlando.net)