By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

The city of Kissimmee plans to cut 15 employee positions, continue with park improvements and work to complete a major roadway project in the municipality’s tentative $125 million budget.

There were no plans, however, for any property tax increases as the tax rate will stay at 4.62 mills, which is equivalent to $4.62 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. For a house assessed at $100,000, the annual property bill would be $462.

The 2010-11 fiscal year budget was listed at $125,612,869, which included making about $1 million in proposed budget cuts, City Manager Mark Durbin said. The city also is proposing to use about $2.3 million in reserves, but would still leave this fund level above the 20 percent mark, a line the commission does not want to cross according to established policy.

“We’re still solid financially,” Durbin said.

But because the city does stand to lose about $3.3 million in property taxes due to declining property values, the cuts have to be made, Durbin said. One area was eliminating 15 jobs, which are currently vacant. Some of the departments affected would be parks and recreation, developmental services and the Kissimmee Police Department, where four police officer slots, a sergeant position and a community service officer are expected to be cut.

“Everybody has to work smarter,” Durbin said. “They have to get the same amount of work done with less people.”

The Kissimmee Police Department schedules monthly meetings bringing together all aspects of the department to discuss its crime-fighting strategy and ways to be proactive in preventing crime. In those evaluations, re-adjustments continually take place, putting focus where it is needed to accomplish our goals, Chief Fran Iwanski said.

“The decision to give back the vacant positions to the city is not going to make an impact on how the Kissimmee Police Department deals with crime,” Iwanski added. “Currently, those assigned to specialty units assist with responding to calls for service while still being able to focus on the unit’s responsibilities. All areas of the department work together to achieve the goals of the department.”

There are no proposed pay or cost-of-living increases in the budget. And layoffs are not anticipated, Durbin said.

Also budgeted is $1.4 million for the third phase of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which will connect Thacker Avenue to Dyer Boulevard. The design is about 60 percent complete, Public Works Director Dave Derrick said.

“We expect to have the design done by the end of the year,” he said.

Construction should be completed in 2011, Derrick said.

In parks and recreation, $7.5 million is budgeted to further lakefront improvements to build the downtown Lakefront Park.

In the meantime, the city must continue to be concerned with actions taken by the Florida Legislature as well as with cost increases that the city had no control over such as landfill charges, health insurance, pension benefits, electric and fuel costs, Durbin wrote in the budget.

“We have to make a conservative effort to make cuts over time,” Durbin said.

The city’s budget year starts Oct. 1.