As of right now, Mayor B.J. Meeks has the budget balanced at $4,013,439 allotted for expenditures and $4,014,000 projected in revenues for 2010. But he hopes the other council members will be able to help him get the budget in even better shape before it is approved.
“We need to do some more trimming,” Meeks said. “This is balanced, but it doesn’t leave any money for our Downtown Revitalization match. I think it was $60,000 spread over two years, but I am hoping you all can help me find some cuts. I encourage you to even take a look at some revenue and see what we can work with.”
One large increase in the budget will come from the city covering the increase in premium costs to meet its 50 percent portion of health insurance for all city employees.
Other big hurdles in the budget included working on the police department budget and trying to project figures for sales tax and gasoline tax.
Meeks said the police department’s budget was the hardest to work with because the department plans to begin working with E911, but Meeks is not comfortable projecting whether the program will cost or save the city money as the officers adjust to the changes that will eventually streamline communication for the city.
“We cut out four salaries, I hope to cut out expenses from using the old jail and we plan to cut the office supplies budget,” Meeks said. “Only one of those employees had health insurance, so we went in and adjusted the matching taxes. Not knowing when the deal with 911 will go into effect, I don’t know for sure how to budget for the police department.”
Meeks also expressed concern about sales and gasoline taxes. He said sales taxes were highest in October and November of 2008, declined from December of 2008 through March 2009 and took a drastic downturn from then on. As for gas, he said the city is “not the cheapest gas around anymore.”
The mayor is also concerned that the franchise tax will be reduced enough for FY 2010 to affect the city’s budget.
However, Meeks still remains optimistic that the city did not have to lay any employees off and no furlough days were announced, meaning that personnel has not suffered because of the tight budget.
He also told the council he was considering evaluating whether the city could afford to offer employees some sort of Christmas incentive since it could not afford to award any raises, and expressed hope that the economy would turn around enough to offer raises the next year.
City Clerk Sandra Donahoo said if the city were financially sound enough to offer a Christmas incentive to its employees, the council should know by April if raises would be possible for FY 2011. Donahoo said she believed that was about the time of year cities made that decision anyway.
“I hope that if we do a tight budget this year, we can see things turn around and get better,” Meeks said. “We do have a 20 percent reserve put back. If it comes to that point, we may need to use some of that reserve this year, but it is there if we need it.”
Also during the meeting, the council:
• Approved travel and training to either Montgomery on Tuesday, Oct. 27, or to Birmingham on Wednesday, Oct. 28, to attend an elected officials training program at a cost of $100 per person. No one expressed a confirmed interest in attending at the meeting.
• Approved replacement of flooring in the restrooms of the R.S. Limbaugh Community Center at an estimated cost of about $2,000.
• Approved an ordinance concerning combining a building official position with a police officer position.
• Approved work to make repairs to a storage room per a state inspection report.
The next meeting of the Childersburg City Council is set for Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 5:30 p.m. at Childersburg City Hall.
Post a Comment
