LAUDERDALE LAKES (CBS4) - Faced with a $5 million deficit brought on by sharply decreased property values combined with major revenue projection errors and a limited commercial base, the City of Lauderdale Lakes may turn to Broward County for a loan to bail them out.

Earlier this month city leaders approved a number cost cutting measures which included terminating two police sergeants along with a code enforcement officer in the Broward Sheriff's Office service, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

They also approved a 10 percent salary cut for employees who more than $70 thousand a year and cuts between three and seven percent for everyone else.

But it is still not enough.

"We ultimately will have to find some way to help,'' Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness told the paper.

Holness, who represents Lauderdale Lakes, has been working with the city's leaders to come up with some sort of a solution to their mounting debts.

The city is more than three months behind on payments to the Broward Sheriff's Office for police and fire services. The sheriff's department wants its money and has contacted the Governor's Office. According to state law, once a city falls more than three months behind on its payments for services, the state can intervene.

During a May 10th commission meeting, it was agreed that city would pay BSO $500 thousand a month instead of the $1.2 million which it owes on a monthly basis. Under this plan they will be $9 million in debt to BSO at the end this fiscal year.

The pressure is on for the city to come up with a workable budget plan by October 1st, the start of a new budget year, for face insolvency.

Under state law, cities cannot have unbalanced budgets. Lauderdale Lakes hopes they will be able to convince the county to give them a loan so they can pay for about six months of police and fire services over a decade. If the county turns them down, city leaders have said they might consider a lease-back program where it would mortgage equity in city properties and uses that money to pay down the debt.

Source: The Sun-Sentinel