The Columbus city council on Wednesday unanimously approved cuts that will nearly eliminate the deficit from the city’s projected fiscal year 2016 budget.
The suggested budget — first unveiled Monday during a budget meeting — included $25.06 million against 23.36 million in revenues. The disparity left a $1.7 million deficit that councilmen sought to reduce before the budget’s final approval, which must come by Sept. 15.
The approved cuts Wednesday lowered the deficit to $63,813.41.
At the first budget meeting Monday, city Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong suggested cuts to requested funding for councilmen to consider. The reductions from the requested funding from departments include $540,000 from financed landfill equipment; $175,000 from financed police cars; $240,000 in a reduction of maximum Columbus Police Department officers to 66; $64,000 for capital equipment for CPD; $50,000 from Columbus Fire and Rescue at Chief Martin Andrew’s discretion; $169,000 for Public Works capital equipment; and $234,883 from capital appropriations.
Those suggestions would lower the projected deficit to $220,254.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Armstrong told councilmen the city could remove an additional $125,000 originally budgeted as the city’s contribution to a $500,000 community match grant split among Golden Triangle communities to support westbound flights from Golden Triangle Regional Airport. The council approved pledging the funds for FY 2016 in February.
Mike Hainsey, the executive director with the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, has told the council the community match funds were only meant as a revenue guarantee if the air service — if obtained — fell below a certain revenue threshold after the first year. If revenue didn’t fall below the threshold, the money wouldn’t be needed.
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box asked Monday if the city still needed to budget the funds, and Armstrong said Wednesday that it does not.
“I talked with Mike and he said, ‘We couldn’t get it, but hopefully they’ll talk to us in the fall and if not, the spring or summer,'” Armstrong said. “I said if we get it to come back to the mayor and council and we can budget it for the next fiscal year. There’s really no need to budget it for this fiscal year.”
Chief Financial Officer Milton Rawle said the city could save an additional $4,000 from the budget due to a reduction in cost of Light and Water Department signal repairs. He said the project was initially budgeted for $115,000, with half paid this year and half next year. He said Kevin Stafford of Neel-Shaffer sent an email notifying him that the cost had been reduced to $107,000. A portion of the savings are budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year, the rest will follow for the next year.
A reduction in needed funding for the match for city hall’s renovation reduced the deficit a further $27,441.
Councilmen may look for additional ways to save money as the budget process continues this afternoon. Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem asked how much money the city could save by going paperless or reducing paper usage.
Paper costs the city approximately $50,000. Rawle said the city has to pay 10 cents per copy page for applications.
“Anytime we have to make a copy of an application that’s a 10 cent cost for each copy paper we have to print for applications, which can add up quick,” he said. “I would think if we could go paperless on the application process, that could save us a good bit of money. It would just require having few computers out here for (human resources).”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.