ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando municipal leaders decided to allocate more tax dollars to their office budgets Tuesday.
Last month, Commissioner Regina Hill asked for more money after spending nearly her entire $90,000 budget.
Commissioners will receive a budget increase to $125,000 after Monday night's vote.
Two commissioners told Channel 9 they were against the increase and stuck to their guns Monday night. But the mayor and three others had them outnumbered and voted it in.
The vote capped off a heated exchange between Orlando city commissioners.
"Nobody made a squawk about it being $169,000," Hill said.
The commissioners were arguing over whether they deserve the additional cash on the taxpayers' dime.
The increase in the commissioners' office budgets was set to pass by default alongside a more general budget vote.
But District One's Jim Gray put up an amendment that would have capped spending at the current level.
"There's one area we can control and that is commissioner spending," said Gray.
Commissioners Tony Ortiz and Robert Stuart joined Gray in voting against the spending increase.
Channel 9 recently found the three operating inside their existing $95,000 budgets.
But Mayor Buddy Dyer and Commissioners Samuel Ings, Patty Sheehan and Regina Hill defeated the amendment.
Hill is right on the cusp of exhausting her entire budget, part of which Channel 9 discovered went to places like Bed Bath and Beyond and Old Time Pottery.
"Mostly to build up people in District 5 and that took funding," said Hill.
By last month, Ings was close to going over the newly increased amount he voted for Monday night.
While the budget passed, some commissioners want more oversight on each district's spending.
The city's new budget year starts on Oct. 1.
Channel 9 reached out to every commissioner.
Gray and Ortiz both responded to Channel 9 Tuesday. Gray said he fought and lost, which is sometimes the way of democracy.
WFTV
