Orlando's budget to increase by $50M; here's how it will be spent

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Police Department officially has the money needed to hire all the school resource officers it needs.

The funding is part of the budget the Orlando City Council passed Monday afternoon.

There will be a $50 million increase in spending next year, $20 million of which will go toward the police and fire departments.

The departments make up 55 percent of the total budget, but they only received 40 percent of this year's additional money.

"It's never going to be enough," community activist Lawana Gelzer said. "(It's) never going to be enough. The times are changing. Crime is up in certain communities."

Nonetheless, Gelzer said she is glad to see public safety budgets among the departments receiving a bump in funding this year.

The Orlando Fire Department will receive $7.6 million more for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

The Orlando Police's Department's account will increase by $12.1 million.

"The good news is we've had SROs in all of our schools for quite some time now, and this will help us permanently staff those schools," Orlando police Chief John Mina said.

There will be 15 new school resource officers hired with some of the money to make sure the county's schools stay in compliance with the new school safety law.

The rest of the money will help with answering calls in Lake Nona and other parts of the city where growth has exploded.

"The more stores, the more apartment complexes, the more population and visitors increase, the more officers, the more staffing we need to cover all of those areas," Mina said.

Gelzer said she hopes more officers means that OPD won't be spread as thin and will have more time to spend making and maintaining relationships in the community.

"If we look how we spend those dollars and how we engage our citizens to make sure citizen engagement -- the community is doing community policing, then our dollars will stretch a lot further," she said.

Spending on economic development, executive offices and parks will also increase by millions next year.

The parks increase is also driven in part by growth in the Lake Nona area, which will receive two new parks within the year.

Monday's budget meeting didn't end up including additional money for brick street maintenance and repairs.

Leaders of historic neighborhoods recently sent letters to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer asking the city to do a better job with maintenance.

The money could still be allocated sometime after the fiscal year starts.

Cox Media Group