At the request of Vice Mayor Vince Lago to the City Manager Peter Iglesias, Finance Director Diana Gomez prepared an estimate of expected shortfalls to the city’s budget on April 17th, 2020. The document shows a $9,937,000 shortfall for a 4-month period, which includes a 10% conservative cushion. The shortfall was not discussed at the April 20th Commission Meeting.
“This action has identified potentially $7.4M to off-set this revenue shortfall.” noted Gomez in the document adding “The balance of approximately $2.6M will be covered with general fund reserves as needed.”
Iglesias told Gables Insider that he and his team are looking at the revenues and shortfalls on a weekly basis and will be heavily relying on April figures to get a true assessment of the impacts and will help properly model things moving forward. He told Gables Insider he has placed an immediate hiring freeze at the start of this pandemic and will not increase headcount at this time.
The document also shows $235,000 “unpaid to date against budget” in Biltmore Hotel rent, with another $147,000 in deferred lease revenue with payment plans on various city-owned rental properties.
When asked about salary cuts and layoffs, Iglesias responded that its too early to tell but that he is confident there are no redundancies in personnel at this time.
However, there will be services that the city will not be able to offer in the short-term. “It’s not looking favorable right now and we have not hired the personnel yet [to run the camp programming].” said Iglesias regarding the youth center and summer camp programs. He is anticipating some parks will re-open in due time possibly along with the county’s re-opening plan, but no close contact activities allowed. The Youth Center will not be immediately opening in the first phase.
Other municipalities are struggling as well. The Miami Herald reported today that the City of Miami Beach has fired over 250 employees and their own city manager takes furlough during this crisis while their government dips into reserves.
While Iglesias has briefed all commission members on this initial shortfall assessment, he tells Gables Insider he will give a formal update at the May 13th Budget Workshop at 9:00am.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ESTIMATED FINANCIAL SHORTFALL 4-17-20 DOCUMENT
La ciudad de coral gables desde hace la epoca del Sr Slesnik, Cason y ultimamente wl Se Valde Fauli han llevado a la ciudad a un verdadero caos administrativo con un excesivo gasto en proyectos publicos innecesarios en vez de llevar una politica de restriccion del gasto por la conocedora crisis economica que se sabia de aproximaba para el ano 2020-2021 y 2023.
Ahora tienen un gran problema para balancear el deficid solo tienen tres alternativas subir impuestos a la propiedad y otros impuestos despedir empleados perjudicando los servicios al residente y suprirmir protectos futuros. Los impuestos generales deberian bajar para promover negocios los de impuestos de la propiedad deberian bajar.
Gracias