City Beat: Council prepares $255M budget for public comment

At its April 29 luncheon, council agreed on where to cut $5.2 million from general revenue expenditures in the city’s fiscal 2009 budget, which totals $255 million and includes $41.7 million in general fund revenue.

The budget cuts are needed to meet the actuarial recommendation for contributions to the Police and Fire Pension Fund.

The plan includes nearly $1.8 million in total reductions to the Parks, Health and Public Works’ transportation budgets, as well as $260,000 worth of funding reductions for outside agencies, namely nonprofits.

Also included is an employee reduction of 36.4 full-time equivalents, including 15 from the Police department, five from Fire and 8.4 from Public Works. None of the personnel reductions, however, will mean layoffs – the cuts will be made by not filling open positions.

The budget also eliminates the Police take-home car program, which should save $230,000, and adds fees for restaurant inspections and Fire department medical runs, which should bring in an additional $173,000.

The fiscal 2009 revenue projections are based on 3 percent to 4 percent growth in sales tax income over the current year, which was unsettling for several councilmembers.

“I’m concerned that we’re looking at any kind of growth,” Councilman John Wylie said at the luncheon. “People are looking at paying off debts rather than shooting money back into the economy. I’m worried that we’re banking on any kind of increase at all.”

Deputy City Manager Evelyn Honea said that while staff does anticipate enough growth to meet the estimated increase, sales tax revenues will be closely scrutinized.

“As we go forward, we’ll be monitoring the financial situation, because there may come a point at some time during the year next year when we’d have to institute a hiring freeze again, if the sales tax doesn’t continue to grow as it should,” Honea said.

Through the proposed cuts and new revenue, the budget contains a contingency fund of more than $300,000, which the city would set aside for unpredictable costs.

One such potential issue is fuel. City Manager Bob Cumley said the Public Works Department has estimated fuel could cost up to $600,000 more than is budgeted.

Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky worried the additional fuel cost could eat away any advances made through the new fees or extra belt-tightening, and she proposed that the $260,000 reduction to nonprofit agency funding be restored to its original level of $400,000, in order to increase the contingency fund.

“The bottom line is that the nonprofits are still not core services, and we need to be focused on that,” she said. “I really don’t think we have $140,000 to put back in the pot.”

Mayor Tom Carlson, however, noted that the city’s $12.7 million rainy day reserve fund is in place for unforeseen costs, such as fuel.

“When we say we only have a few hundred thousand dollars left, you could leave the erroneous impression that if that gets absorbed, the police cars get parked,” Carlson said. “I’m not saying we should spend the money willy-nilly, but it would be an incorrect impression that because this contingency fund might get used up, we can’t perform our regular services.”

The budget will be on council’s May 5 agenda for public comment, and council could vote as early as May 19. An approved budget must be in place before the fiscal year begins July 1.

The full budget document is available on the city’s Web site, www.springfieldmo.gov.[[In-content Ad]]