While they tentatively approved Mayor Ashton Hayward’s proposed budget, members of the Pensacola City Council still have some questions. During yesterday’s budget hearing, council members expressed concerns about the funding of outside…
Tag: budget
City Budget Hearing
The Pensacola City Council today will hold the first of two public hearings pertaining to the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013. After looking at Mayor Ashton Hayward’s proposed numbers during…
Council Tables Budget
Pensacola City Council’s two-day budget session ended last night with a sudden swerve to the side of the road. The engine was overheating and all the needles had raced wildly into the…
Budget Workshop, Day 1
The Pensacola City Council began pouring over Mayor Ashton Hayward’s proposed budget today in the first of two—possibly three—workshops this week. They listened to hours of presentations from city staff. They enjoyed…
Digging Out of the Hole
The Escambia County Commission heard a bit of good news this morning. The county’s $9.6 million budget deficit has been whittled down considerably. “The deficit that we’re working with today is $410,382, 
Hayward’s Blueprint
Delivering the 2013 budget today, Mayor Ashton Hayward discussed the city of Pensacola’s future in a State of the City address that was both optimistic and sobering. While touting recent successes, the…
City Budget Presentation
At the request of Mayor Ashton Hayward, the Pensacola City Council will hold a special meeting Monday. The meeting has been scheduled in order for the mayor to present the council with…
Johnson Predicts ‘Tough’ Budget Season
The Pensacola City Council offered a glimpse last night of what upcoming budget workshops might look like. Council members signaled to Mayor Ashton Hayward that it could be a rough ride. Councilman…
More Sausage
Faced with a nearly $10 million budget shortfall, Escambia County commissioners again discussed possible solutions during this morning’s commission workshop. “Nobody wants us to cut any services, nobody wants us to raise…
What Charlie Fairchild said about Maritime Park in 2005
The year was 2005. Pensacola had finished a series of town hall meetings on a proposed community maritime park. Charlie Fairchild, C.C. Elebash and Marty Donovan were working behind the scenes to…
Miller wants BP to escrow funds
Congressman Jeff Miller is worried about the impact of cleaning up the BP oil spill will have on local governments that are already operating under tight budgets. Miller told us at the…
Disbursements to MPDP
The Community Maritime Park Associates has disbursed to the master developer, Maritime Park Development Partners, $303,273.10 of their development fee (budget $1,386,077). The checks cover the $35,000 advance due when the contract…
More FCAT analysis
The FCAT statistics indicate that the test scores vary from class to class as the students move through the Escambia County Public School District. Teachers don’t have the same impact year to…
Can Pensacola reduce reserves to avoid tax increase?
City Finance Director Richard Barker has argued that it’s the best practice of the Government Finance Officer Association (GFOA) to have no less than two months of regular general fund operating revenues…
Improving use of minority vendors
The Pensacola City Council’s Finance Commitee will discuss today the recommendations made by the Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Ad Hoc Committee on MGT of America SBE Report. The MGT report has been…
Pensacola property values drop less than expected
Many people worried that the property values inside the Pensacola city limits would drop 5 to 8 percent. The preliminary valuation report from County Property Appraiser Chris Jones show only a little…
What did Sheriff Morgan say?
How much did David Morgan say he would cut the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office budget if he was elected? I’ve reviewed our archives and those of the PNJ and can’t find a…
Crist treats state budget like we do ours
Gov. Charlie Crist has a plan for covering the $2.3 billion state budget deficit. It is not that different from we all have been having to do this year. Crist wants to…
Sansom takes over Nov. 15
Ray Sansom (R-Ft. Walton Beach) takes over as Speaker of the Florida House on Nov. 15. He tells the reporters that he doesn’t believe a special session is needed to deal with…