TAMPA, Fla. — On Wednesday, September 13, the Tampa City Council will have to cut $45 million out of Mayor Jane Castor's proposed $1.9 billion budget for 2024—after voting down a proposed millage rate hike.
But Thursday, the council made clear that they'd like to be mindful of how much of that is connected to public safety spending.
"When we say we're not gonna cut public safety, if we're talking about what was previously allocated, sure. But then there was money that was allocated that with the addition of the budget that we have to make up for if we want to keep that," said Luis Viera.
Thursday, the council and public safety leaders talked about creating a long-term "master plan" for public safety in the city that would start with addressing pressing concerns for each department.
For the Tampa Police Department (TPD), there's a need to add more patrol cars, focus on community policing, and increase resources for the mental health of the TPD team.
We also spoke to the Tampa Fire Rescue Chief, Barbara Tripp, who told us that many city fire stations are decades old and need to be updated to meet the needs of the 21st century.
"Now we're adding additional heavy rescue, a lot of different resources, but the stations are not in a position to handle a lot of those resources. So what we're doing now is looking for ways to make sure we get those resources in the station," she said.
In addition to upgrades, the President of the Tampa Firefighters Local 754 union, Nick Stocco, told ABC Action News that the city badly needs at least three new stations in New Tampa, Channelside, and near the Westshore area.
"For every day that we don't take forward action, we're just setting ourselves two, three steps back," he said.
Regarding the need in New Tampa, it was revealed Thursday that the city council had previously set aside money to build a new station there. But it never got done.
"We approved that, but the administration chose not to go forward with it. And that really lies on the seven of us to follow up, to keep up, to make sure that things that are in the (Capital Improvement Program) are done the way we want them to do," said council member Lynn Hurtak.
For Stocco, it's a revelation that has him hoping the money can be reallocated.
"Can that money be transferred over to fiscal year 24? So, we can see groundbreaking and ribbon cutting at that station," he said.
When it comes to funding public safety measures in the long run, on Thursday, the council floated the idea of using a city bond initiative or imposing a public safety impact fee on new developments to help raise money.
