The city of Archer took another step toward paying off its debt in its first budget workshop for fiscal year 2025-26.
A 2024 audit revealed that the city of Archer owed over $1 million total to various sources. The city is still paying off its debt, with some money even owed to itself.
Archer residents have criticized the city for letting the debt accrue, and some have called it a “crisis.”
Archer Mayor Fletcher Hope insists it’s under control.
“It’s not catastrophe or chaos. We’re working on creating a balanced budget,” he told WUFT.
The city hired Dallas Lee, the assistant City Manager of Newberry, to help with the city’s budget. Hope called both himself and Lee “aggressive” in their approach to the budget.
Commissioner Joan White said, “I want us to be able to pay our employees and make sure our citizens have water and safe roads.”
To Lee, that meant a barebones budget with only mandatory expenses.
A primary area for potential cuts was the Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MTSU) that provides enhanced law enforcement services to the city. Archer, a city with a population just over 1,000, doesn’t have its own police department. It relies on the support of the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and the city pays extra for “enhanced services.”
“Frankly, I’m not sure what services you get with the law enforcement MSTU,” said Lee.
Getting rid of the MSTU could allow Archer to generate more revenue from taxes without residents paying more.
Taxes spent on the MSTU contribute to the city’s millage, the amount of money taxed for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value. The city uses 9.1157 of the maximum of 10 millage. Leaving the MSTU would free up 3.5678 mills of taxing capacity for the city.
Archer resident Gene Arnold called cutting the MSTU a “no brainer.” While it’s too late to leave the MSTU for FY 2025-26, the commission expressed support for the cut.
“Do whatever you can to get out right now,” he said. “You’re giving too much money away and you’ve got to bump it up as much as you can.”
Outside of the budget, flexible scheduling for government employees could save the city a considerable amount of money.
Archer resident and former mayor Laurie Costello said the city is spending way too much on overtime and call-out time and could save tens of thousands of dollars by implementing flexible scheduling.
“The city pretends it’s understaffed, but there’s no reason people should be working overtime,” she told WUFT. Hope agreed and said flexible scheduling is a priority.
Despite the commission’s optimism, some Archer residents need to see it to believe it. “They’ve said these things before, and nothing ever happens,” said Archer resident Don Hantzsche. Costello agreed.
Hope and the commission seem committed to righting the ship, though. White told the room she was right there with them, and that she’ll be paying the same taxes.
“I don’t want to go up on any of this,” she said. “But I love this city, and there’s not a whole lot we can do about it right now.”