Find Your Way Through City Budget Discussions

Tuesday night’s New Port Richey City Council meeting on budget issues lasted much longer than most and produced few final decisions.

The late night, nearly four-hour-long session started with setting the city’s tentative millage rate and then discussing, but not making final decisions on, department budgets.

City staff is proposing a lean $16.5 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2013. Officials are proposing laying off city employees and freezing positions as part of the proposed budget. 

Tuesday's budget discussion started shortly after 7:30 p.m. and ended shortly before 11:30  p.m. Some folks in the audience who came to talk left before having their say.

At the tail end of the meeting, councilman Bill Phillips said he has wanted to weigh in on several issues, but the "The hour’s so late, I am done."

To help you make heads or tails of what's going on, we've broken down the budget talks into bite-sized chunks you can pick and choose from.

Here you'll find the stories we've covered to date on New Port Richey's budget cycle. This is also the place to check for new stories as they crop up.

Just remember, most discussions are not final. Things tend to be fluid until the council passes the final version of the budget, which it is required by state law to do by the end of Sept. 30.

Here is what's happening on the city's budget and some background on what's led up to this point: