Daytona Beach and Volusia County Economizing

Volusia County officials are hoping a creative new approach to organizing county government will reduce the likelihood of some homesteaded property owners facing a big hike in their tax bills this year.

While recent changes instituted by County Manager Jim Dinneen have been characterized as unique, some say it's just the kind of outside-of-the-box thinking needed to overcome the dire economic situation all local governments are facing now.

Political science Professor T. Wayne Bailey said as more functions of government are "farmed out to local government," county leaders must continually do more with less. And because of that, "trying to maintain a trained, skilled, bureaucracy is one of the urgent imperatives of today's world," Bailey said.

He continued, to get there, leaders face "two major choices." They can either privatize more county functions or use "ingenious methods" to redefine work functions and agency organization. Dinneen has leaned toward the latter as he's worked to pare $23.3 million from the county budget. Doing so could avoid an increase in county property tax rates this year and officials have just $6 million left to cut.

In Volusia County, large layoffs and furloughs have been avoided. Dinneen credits the organizational changes over the past three years for that, though he said it's only been this year that the changes have been most noticeable to the average taxpayer. "We're trying to be efficient with people in a way that makes the most sense," he said.

Dinneen is doing something that's common in the private sector -- using fewer, more trained individuals to run government functions through efforts of consolidation, co-location, cross training and coordination to hit elected officials' budget reduction goal.

Learn more about our Daytona Beach lifestyle and how our cities and county are facing the realities of today's economic situation. Request my Free Reloation Package and contact me for real estate information on any of our Daytona Beach communities. I'm the Relocation Specialist for Daytona and Ormond Beach, Fl.

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
http://www.sherryarmstrong.com/
http://www.ormondbeachscene.com/