On the Chopping Block: Police, Fire, Community Groups, Trash Collection
This week, in an email to residents, Mayor Sheila DeCiccio asked what should be cut in the city budget as a result of state-ordered reductions
Aug. 7, 2026
By Beth Kassab
After years of stripping power from locally elected mayors and commissions when it comes to everything from regulating where apartments can be built and how tall to whether cities can ban gas-powered leaf blowers or plastic straws, state leaders have reached a new level of micro-managing local governments: mandatory lists of budget fat.
Cities and counties will be required to publish those lists starting next year as a result of a new law (HB1329) signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis this summer.
But Winter Park is getting a jump on the exercise.
With potential property tax cuts looming in the form of Amendment 3 on the November ballot, city managers asked each department to lay out cuts to reduce their budgets by 10% (This exercise will be mandatory for local governments next year as a result of the new law.)
The results?
Here’s just a sample of what’s on the budget fat list in City Hall:
- Eliminate a code enforcement officer position that is currently vacant ($75,000)
- Eliminate funding for the Public Art Advisory Board ($15,000)
- Eliminate the mailed printed version of quarterly Winter Park Update newsletter and monthly inserts in utility bills ($71,900)
- Eliminate the use of accepting cash for city services like permits or other needs at the City Hall windows ($50,000)
- Eliminate two vacant firefighter positions ($200,000)
- Close a Fire Rescue engine company ($1.25 million)
- Begin closing the library every Monday ($210,000)
- Reduce garbage collection to one day per week ($300,000)
- Reduce tree plantings, canopy maintenance and eliminate residential tree permits among other changes ($600,000 combined)
- Eliminate the Historic Preservation Grant Program ($100,000)
- Eliminate four police detectives, one traffic officer, one community service officer and two officers dedicated to homeless outreach ($1.15 million)
- Eliminate body-worn cameras and live crime center for the police department ($300,000)
- Reduce funding to community organizations such as the Winter Park History Museum, the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, Mead Botanical Garden, Blue Bamboo and more. ($243,500)
You get the idea. And that’s not the complete list.
Also, to be clear, the spreadsheet of potential cuts provided by City Hall included about 45 items. Some of those were ways to increase revenue for the city (such as adding more red light cameras, which could result in $750,000 in new revenue). Even so, the total did not add up to $9.5 million or about 10% of the proposed budget’s nearly $95 million general fund. The proposed all-funds budget, which includes the utilities and other funds, is up to $247 million.
The Voice totaled the spreadsheet to about a $7.8 million overall reduction (including some revenue gains proposed).
“As you can see, getting to a budget cut of 10% would not be painless,” Mayor Sheila DeCiccio told the community in an email she sent out this week. “It could mean fewer police officers and detectives, longer emergency response times, reduced park maintenance, one-day a week trash collection, and fewer community programs.”
She asked residents in the email what they prefer to cut, explaining, “I’m writing this email because I believe you, our Winter Park residents, deserve to see the potential cuts that are being discussed. As always, I’m committed to full transparency.”
Winter Park staff estimates Amendment 3 would require cuts of $3.4 million in 2028 and $6.7 million in 2029. So far shy of the 10% exercise. But not far off once a few years into the new tax structure if it wins by the required 60% of voters in November.
The Voice has heard from some readers who appear to be under the impression that police and fire or other “essential services” can not be cut under Amendment 3, which would increase the homestead exemption ultimately to $250,000.
But that’s not the case. Cities and counties will still provide emergency services, to be sure, but at what level?
Florida House Republicans approved language that would ban local governments from reducing money for law enforcement, firefighters, and first responders below the level in either fiscal year 2025-26 or 2026-27, whichever was higher. But the Senate never approved that version and it died during the Legislative session.
That’s why police and sheriffs’ organizations have spoken out about the potential impact of the amendment and cuts that could result from it.
“The Florida Sheriffs Association is significantly concerned with Constitutional Amendment 3, which potentially allows Tallahassee to control your local budgets, creates longer law enforcement response times, limits communities’ abilities to provide road repairs and stormwater removal — these are a few things voters deserve to be aware of,” the organization said this week on Facebook.
And the soaring cost of police and fire service is a main driver of the growth in the budget the City Commission will consider this month.
Record-high pension costs for police officers and firefighters as well as a new labor contract with the Fire Union that included a 12% pay increase in 2026 will account for 70% of new costs in the proposed 2027 budget.
In 2021, for example, the starting salary for a Winter Park police officer was $22.84 an hour or about $48,000 a year. Today it’s $30.34 an hour or more than $63,000 a year.
Police Chief Tim Volkerson has said the increases are the result of pressure on wages from other departments who have raised pay as they have struggled to hire and retain officer.
The city has 121 full-time police staff and three part-time staff slated for 2027, up from 115 full-time staff and 13 part-time staff in 2023.
The budget for the fire department is up from $13.2 million in 2020 to a proposed nearly $19 million for next year. The department has grown from 81 full-time staff and two part-time staff in 2023 to 84 full-time staff and three part-time staff.
Translated into savings for individuals residents, homesteaded property owners would pay about $818 less per year to Winter Park. The total tax savings per year for Winter Park homeowners if the ballot measure passes would be $1,783, including the reduction paid to the city as well as the reductions in taxes paid to Orange County and St. Johns River Water Management District. (Taxes paid to schools would remain unchanged under the tax proposal on the ballot.)
The City Commission is slated to hear public input and consider portion of the budget at this meetings this month on Aug. 12 and Aug. 26 before final adoption of the budget by the end of September.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
Good stuff Beth! Thank you!
A simple sale of the old Library will cure a lot of ills in the near future.
Citizens have to adjust their budget why can’t municipalities. It’s called Fiscal Responsibility
Here are the facts:
Property Tax Revenue in Winter Park:
2022/$27.5 million
2023/$34 million
2024/$39 million
2025/$41 million
The City needs to live within its means. Property tax has increased app. 50% since 2022. Property tax revenue is soaring in WP. And it’s only going up with increasing property values.
Additionally, Only 30% of the homes in Florida are Homesteaded/able to take advantage of the property tax amendment in November. So 70% of homes in Florida don’t qualify/won’t receive property tax relief.
Enough with the scare tactics!
Yes, property tax revenues in Winter Park (and most places) have increased as a result of higher property values and new development that adds to the tax rolls. But you are very wrong about your second statement that parcels won’t pay a reduced rate. Nearly half of the parcels in Winter Park are homesteaded. In addition, (from my earlier reporting), “passage of Amendment 3 means the cap on annual assessment increases for those properties — anything from a Publix grocery store to an Amazon warehouse to a vacation home — would drop from 10% to 5%. That represents future savings for billion-dollar corporations and less future revenue for local governments to use for police, fire rescue, roads and everything else property taxes pay for. Growth in property values is how a city like Winter Park, which has enjoyed a brisk real estate market for years, has managed to increase its budget without raising the tax rate for 18 years. A little more than half of the city’s total ad valorem collections or about $21.2 million come from non-homesteaded properties owned by everyone from small business owners to deep-pocketed corporations who will save money as a result of the new cap.” In addition, consider inflation and how much more it costs to fund police and fire today versus five years ago … or did you not read that far into the story because the facts upset you?
How about eliminating half of the library staff.
Eliminate the road sweeping machine.
Thanks again, Beth, for taking the time to pay attention to the details and giving us a thorough and lucid explanation.
I devastation by this ill-thought-out policy boggles the mind of any rational person. We are going to need volunteer organizations to take over many of the functions of those paid positions. Those who support these cuts need to carefully assess how it will affect not only themselves, but the community. You will see the butterfly effect, and it won’t be pretty. Just take some objective indicators and see how things will be messy, dangerous, and miserable if these cuts take place. This is a recipe for how to create social problems!
Hope the Mayor and commission create a program asking City employees about areas of opportunity for reducing expenses. They are in the thick of daily activities. See what they come up with? Every general expense item reduced equates to one salary dollar that does not get cut.
The last place to cut should be salaries.
The number of vehicles the city owns and maintains is not incidental. Rather than providing city vehicles for non fire/safety folk; reimburse them for their business use of their personal car/ vehicle.
Eliminating the monthly inserts in the utility billing is a no brainer; depending on your billing date the insert is almost outdated when received. In addition return envelopes are provided for customers who make credit or debit payments.
Yes some of this may be minor but the small no brainer things can add up and frankly should have been done all along.
Increasing fees for non residents wanting to use City amenities; Golf, Tennis etc. Yea it’s already done but consider increasing the fees.
So glad you are open to parroting the current city commission’s position.
Lol, well, part of good reporting is to quote elected officials so people know what they are saying. And then to independently verify the numbers in the budget and present even more information to readers than what goes out in city emails. So, if it makes you feel cute to call that parroting, go ahead. But you truly have no idea what goes into this work.
any time someone starts their response with “lol” you know you’re right.
City of WP is all bloat and waste by political grifters sucking at the rest of the property taxpayers.
Lol that’s a weird rule of thumb
I see the city has money to install Flock cameras . Two new ones in front of my neighbor hood within the last two weeks. Each Flock camera cost $300 to install and $3000 per year, I believe the contract has a cancelation fee of $2000 per camera .City has at least 25 Flock cameras that I can see. So now the city can monitor me 24hrs per day and capture my license late 40 times a week . Who thought this was a good idea ?
Sheila’s list of potential cuts if a 10% reduction in spending is instituted is interesting. But that is not what will be required if this amendment to Homestead tax rate is passed. The impact to Winter Park finances will be less that 10%, especially in Year 1.
Looking at Sheila’s list, there are ‘easy’ options which while relatively small add up – for example the Arts Board and the Quarterly news letter. The former is ‘nice to have’, but not ‘needed’; the latter could be available on line with an eMail notification to its availability.
And there are other ‘savings’ that have a low impact on core City services – especially those related to safety – though i would like to better understand the impact of ‘fewer’ police- and fire-officers.
Selling assets (like the Old Library) are temporary fixes which do not address the financial fundamentals of what will be a long-term concern.
Cutting the staff a the Library, would save $$, but the LIbrary would then need to close for many more days that Sheila’s proposal to close on Mondays. which would then remove a core City resource for that essential skill of reading.
Personally, i will vote against the amendment; i want the City to continue to provide the broader services that make Winter Park what it is and to achieve that i am happy to pay a higher tax rate.