The Holbrook City Council held its first budget work session on Tuesday to review any changes being considered in the budget from the previous year.
It was first recommended by City Manager Ray Alley that there be no increase in property taxes by the city, despite the fact that assessed value on property would be down, which would mean revenues from property taxes would also be down. “There’s just no need to do an increase at this time since we are able to provide a balanced budget without one,” stated Alley.
A nearly $300,000 cut to revenues was recently made by the state in its efforts to balance the budget. This will result in a $154,000 cut to State Shared Revenues the city receives, as well as $134,359 from Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF).
The staff anticipated cuts from the state, though. “These cuts have already been considered in this balanced budget,” explained Finance Director Randy Sullivan.
This year’s budget will come in approximately $200,000 under projected revenues and Sullivan explained that those funds will be rolled over into the Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) to be used for roads. “Any excess revenue that we may receive will go into infrastructure of roads since HURF has been cut,” stated Sullivan.
The police department will see the biggest cuts, with that budget reduced by approximately $80,000 due primarily to the dispatch conversion and new magistrate fees.
“This is the first year that the police department has had to take a cut. The chief (Mark Jackson) came in and worked with us on it, so it wasn’t us just going in and making cuts,” stated Alley.
It’s projected that the city will also take a loss in revenues of approximately $102,000 due to the recent passage of a law that allows private sanitation companies to compete for commercial accounts. Sullivan informed the council that another law being considered could allow the same to happen to apartment complex accounts, thus creating a greater loss.
The brief meeting was primarily to provide an overview of the budget. The council will meet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, for another work session to discuss potential changes to the budget.
