- April 24, 2024
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Ormond Beach ranks 31st in government spending out of 90 large cities in Florida, according to a “local government report card” generated by the House of Representative’s Taxpayer Accountability and Transparency Project.
This is the first year of the report, to be continued annually online.
Ormond’s ranking in government spending earned it a “B” grade, based on the city spending an average of $1,671 per resident. Spending per capita has increased $245 between 2014-2019.
Ormond also scored a “B” grade for government debt, ranking 25th due to its six-year average debt per resident of $1,143. Government debt per capita decreased by $441 between 2014-2019.
The city scored an “A” grade in the government size category, ranking 23rd, with an average salary for government employees of $50,572 and 37% of the budget going to employee salaries and benefits.
Its lowest grade came in the crime category, with Ormond getting a “C,” largely attributed to the amount of property crimes: 3,323 per 100,000 person.
Ormond didn’t receive an education ranking. According to the data explanation, this grade is calculated based on average school grade and high school graduation rate. Ormond doesn’t have any high schools within its city limits. The dataset did issue a rank of 3.3 out of 4.0 for Ormond’s average school grades.
Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington said in an email that while the report is “poorly put together,” he is proud that Ormond ranked well in relation to all 411 municipalities in the state.
He said he believed money spent on collecting and reporting the data is wasted, unless the website is able to create an “apples to apples” analysis based on city size and makeup. As the dataset stands, any city with over 25,000 residents is considered large, meaning Ormond is being compared to cities like Miami and Orlando, whose populations far outnumber Ormond’s estimated 43,000 people.
“Hopefully the data collection and analysis will improve if the Florida House of Representatives are to keep funding this,” Partington said.
The Citizens for Ormond Beach is hosting a series of virtual candidate forums to provide the public with the chance to hear the positions of local candidates in advance of the November general election.
According to an announcement, the forums will all be held over Zoom at 7 p.m. To register, visit CitizensforOrmondBeach.org. Email [email protected] or call 770-883-1653 for more information.
Here’s the schedule:
