How Will Reductions in the Budget Affect You?

Over the last five years, Pinellas County has been faced with resizing the organization to fit the new fiscal reality stemming from mandated property tax revenue roll-backs from the Florida Legislature, the impact of Amendment One to the state constitution, the dramatic decline in the real estate market, the increase in residential foreclosures and the multi-year economic impact of the recession.

We have made drastic cuts to the county budget over the last several years, based on what we’ve seen in our 10-year budget forecasts. We have cut county staff to levels not seen since the mid 1980s. We have consolidated several county departments to flatten the number of management and supervisory positions. Our strategy over the last several years has been to look to the future as we reshape Pinellas County government by restructuring, reorganizing, resizing and realigning the organization, cutting waste, redundancies and overlap, to provide an efficient and effective array of core services to our community that can be sustained during times of economic hardship.  

Going into the new fiscal year, county staff will be guided by new strategic direction initiatives that will serve to reestablish priorities and bring Pinellas County government to the level of a high performance organization (HPO).   The new budget will be built on a foundation of strategic planning, performance measurement, program budgeting and multi-year forecasting that Pinellas County has developed over years of thoughtful and concerted effort. We will continue to use and refine these systems going forward, as they provide the framework for logical, viable financial decision making.

We invite you to learn more about Pinellas County’s budgeting process through the links and pages on this Guide to the Pinellas County Budget website, and feel free to provide us with your input via email or at any one of the upcoming public meetings and budget forums. Final budget hearings are scheduled for two dates in September, but there are many opportunities to provide your input to county budget officials in the weeks and months to come. 

Get Involved.