UPDATE: Public Budget Hearing Has Been Postponed From Thursday August 25 Until Tuesday August 30.
Tuesday, August 30, the city will hold a rescheduled public hearing on the proposed budget for 2012. The meeting will be at City Hall at 7 PM. Link to Budget Workshop.
The current proposal is to maintain the millage rate at 4.772, last year's tax rate which was up from 4.227 in 2010. We are going to see our debt millage double from .5 to 1.2 for 2012. So our total millage will go from 5.27 to 5.97, a 13% increase.
That's hefty. There's been little attempt to cut back. out of a total of $3,595,451 in 2011, the police department has only been able to find $159,887 dollars in savings.
The legal department, largely as a result of the number of lawsuits filed by the police, rises from $200,000 to $390,000
So the net change in these, our two most controllable expenses is an additional $30,000.
Those few cuts realized seem to come mostly from services we actually find useful, like street maintenance, which will be cut. The budget looks something like this:
Operating Budget | 2011 | 2012 | Difference |
|
| COMMISSION | $69,273 | $65,221 | -$4,052 | -5.85% |
| CITYMGR | $114,863 | $161,727 | $46,864 | 40.80% |
| CITYCLK | $185,028 | $150,387 | -$34,641 | -18.72% |
| FINANCE | $127,915 | $126,599 | -$1,316 | -1.03% |
| LEGAL | $200,000 | $390,000 | $190,000 | 95.00% |
| GENERALGOV'T. | $842,447 | $835,215 | -$7,232 | -0.86% |
| POLICE | $3,755,338 | $3,595,451 | -$159,887 | -4.26% |
| PARKS&REC. | $36,193 | $36,193 | $0 | 0.00% |
| BUILDING | $142,700 | $163,087 | $20,387 | 14.29% |
| STREETMAINT. | $501,993 | $329,175 | -$172,818 | -34.43% |
| TOTAL | $5,975,750 | $5,853,055 | -$122,695 | -2.05% |
You can see that the total savings are only 2% overall. Special note: In the original, the After School Program was included as a city expenditure. It's not. NBV is administering the grant but the money is not coming from general revenue and so should not categorized as an operating expense.
What I hope we will see Thursday night is Revenue Forecasts. Seeing just the cost side and making decisions based on that is as foolish as just looking at expenses in your personal life. let's see what Thursday night looks like.
Kevin Vericker
August 23, 2011
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