Title
COMMISSIONER JAY D. SCHWARTZ ITEM #1: DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO CREATE A PEMBROKE PINES TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ORDINANCE LIMITING GROWTH IN CITY OPERATING EXPENDITURES.
Summary Explanation and Background
SUMMARY EXPLANATION AND BACKGROUND:
PURPOSE
1. To request that the City Commission direct the City Attorney, in consultation with the City Manager and appropriate staff, to review and prepare for Commission consideration a proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights and Fiscal Responsibility Ordinance establishing an annual limitation on the growth of covered City operating expenditures based upon inflation and population growth.
2. The proposed ordinance would be modeled conceptually upon the fiscal-growth limitations contained in Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, commonly referred to as the Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights ("TABOR"), but would be specifically drafted to comply with the Florida Constitution, Florida Statutes, and the Charter of the City of Pembroke Pines.
BACKGROUND
3. The Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights establishes limitations on the annual growth of government and uses objective economic and growth measurements to determine allowable increases.
4. This item does not propose that Pembroke Pines adopt Colorado law verbatim.
5. Instead, it requests consideration of a Pembroke Pines-specific fiscal policy under which the ordinary operating expenditures of City government would generally be permitted to increase annually by no more than the combined percentage increase in:
a. The applicable Consumer Price Index ("CPI"); and
b. The population of the City of Pembroke Pines.
6. The intent is to establish an objective and transparent benchmark connecting the growth of ordinary municipal operating expenditures to inflation and the growth of the population served by the City.
PROPOSED FISCAL PRINCIPLE
7. Subject to legal review and appropriate exclusions, the proposed ordinance should utili...
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