Source: wftv.com
On Tuesday morning, Orange County will begin its budget sessions for the next fiscal year and it does not look good.
No pay raises are expected and no lay offs are anticipated. But, according to Orange County Commissioner, Linda Stewart, “This is going to be a reality check.”
Commissioners and heads of departments will go through the budget line by line looking for areas that can be cut.
Budget cuts of approximately $700,000 million will most likely eventuate as next year’s budget would be about $2.9 billion, a decline of some 18 percent from $3.6 billion.
“We’re not able to give them a raise in salary or a cost of living increase. Nobody in the county is going to get that,” said Stewart.
“Everybody would like to have more. Everybody would hope that we would have more to give,” said Stewart. She predicts that the situation will only get worse.
Meanwhile, county coffers are running low and this is in part blamed on low revenues on sales and property taxes.
The reality is there is no more money to shell out. The budget managers blames low revenue on sales and property taxes.
County leaders say their hands are tied and they are out of money, but tax payers are already calling foul.
