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The Village’s Finance Department is responsible for the administration of the Village’s financial and fiscal affairs, and is responsible for preparing an annual operating and capital budget that maintains the level of service and quality of life, for residents. The budget must also meet certain criteria established by governing bodies. To date, the Village has been awarded the distinguished budget presentation award for 16 years in a row and will likely receive that same designation for a seventeenth year!
During this budget cycle, the Village anticipates a total fund balance of $10,651,377 and a surplus of $770,535. The Village currently has the seventh lowest millage rate in Miami-Dade County. The Village recently refinanced our 2010 bond through the Florida Municipal Loan Council (FMLC), a division of the Florida League of Cities, and achieved a 27%, which equates to over $3 million, in savings of refunded bonds, one of the largest savings ever seen by FMLC. The results of the refinancing was in part to the AAA bond rating the Village has, a credit rating achieved by one percent of governments rated nationwide and 1 of the 11 municipalities in Florida.
In 2014, Finance Director, Desmond Chin won the Tyler excellence award from Tyler Technologies which acknowledges municipalities annually for embracing technology and using their Enterprise Resource Management solutions to solve unique challenges.
In an effort to enhance transparency, the Village provides 14 years of detailed financial information online for public access. In addition, the check register is also provided where residents can view payments made to vendors. The Manager’s monthly report with actual expenditure percentages is also available to residents on the Village website. The budget cycle was revamped for better transparency, holding 4 budget workshops at various locations on different topics and 2 budget hearings!
Over the past year, the Village added online payment options for Building permits and tennis court rentals, which allows for greater efficiency in accepting and processing payments for Village services by establishing online payment options.
Residents can also make payments online for alarms and park events from the convenience of their homes. The finance department is constantly working on improvements to the revenue collections process. Presently, the Village is working on expanding the park events module which will allow residents to make payments for other services.
Recently the Finance Department has begun budget forecasting to better help guide Village Council and the decisions they make to understand the impact it may have in the future.
We have placed safeguards to protect the taxpayers and to ensure transparency. We want to hear from you! Let us know what you think and how we can better serve you.
