Finance Director Lonnie Clark presented city council with a different version of the previously approved amended city budget at Monday’s meeting, and aldermen unanimously approved it. The previously approved amended budget was deliberated in a workshop and ultimately cut the remaining annual budget by 35 percent for the last three quarters, or about 27 percent annually.
The new budget reduces fewer expenses than the original, cutting the general fund by 22 percent, or 30 percent including water, sewer, and streets. Clark said, “thirty-five percent seemed almost impossible without cutting into personnel.”
Not wanting to cut personnel but having the same revenue expectations as before leaves the budget unbalanced, with a gap of $208,866. Aldermen unanimously approved an amended unbalanced budget showing total expected revenue as $4,200,515 and expenses as $4,409,381.
The Fire/EMS budget was originally cut by 23 percent, but Clark’s new changes only cuts it by 13 percent and reduces those salaries by 0, attributing $99,428 to the budget gap. Fire/EMS can keep $95,382 budgeted for annual overtime.
Clark also loosened the strings on the Building Dept. budget cutting it by 32 percent instead of the original 40 percent, and reducing its salaries by 0, which attributes another $7,323 to the gap. Mayor Butch Berry conceded to keeping the animal control budget that he originally cut by almost 70 percent, which is $15,200 of the gap.
Council reevaluated non-agenda item from the last meeting that alderman Terry McClung requested to reduce all non-elected city salaries by 6 percent. Clark provided a spreadsheet that showed a 6 percent reduction in salaries would be a savings to the city of $62,193 for the remainder of the year. “It’s really not that much,” McClung, who decided not to pursue the cut to help balance the budget, said. Council made no further inquiries to salary cuts.