When push Came to Shove: insourcing and weston, florida's reaction to legislatively mandated revenue shortfalls
Source: IMPA Public Management (subscription req.) FL, June 2008
In an October 2007 PM article describing Weston as a local government that contracts out all of its services for residents--Weston directly employed only three administrators and used approximately 400 contract service work-ers--we indicated some circumstances that account for this highly atypical phenomenon.
...... That has now changed. In its 2007 session, Florida reformed its local property tax legislation. The reform requires local governments to reduce their ad valorem millage rates for fiscal year 2008 so as to derive no more ad valorem revenues than garnered in the prior year, regardless of growth in property values. In Florida, this "rolled back" rate put an end to local governments' revenue stream from Florida's growth in property values.
......... Weston continues to maintain its contract principles with respect to virtually all of its services and service employees. But when a few key senior personnel could be brought aboard at significant cost savings in a situation forced upon Weston by mandates included in state law, one might claim that the principle--which is certainly not absolute--was justifiably bent.