Columbus councilmen passed the city’s upcoming fiscal year budget Tuesday.
During the special call meeting, a 4-2 vote passed the $22,966,210 budget through. Councilmen Kabir Karriem and Bill Gavin were the two opposing votes.
The budget projects that amount in expenditures and $22,665,667 in revenues, a $300,542 deficit which would be made up by the city’s cash balance at the end of the fiscal year or its reserve fund, which has an estimated $1.5 million.
The departments of fire, police and public works account for $13,782,056 of expenditures. Columbus Fire and Rescue and the Columbus Police Department are each receiving more money for the upcoming fiscal year than they did for the current one. This is mostly to purchase new vehicles for each department.
The city projects paying $174,480 in next year’s budget in debt service to purchase a $1.1 million ladder truck for Fire Station No. 1. The truck will be paid off over 10 years beginning with an $86,115 payment next fiscal year and $129,173 for the next eight. It will replace a 25-year old ladder truck.
The city will also purchase six new Dodge Chargers for the police department and pay them off over five years, starting with a $29,311 note next year. Gavin noted that debt service projections are trending up in future budgets and asked chief financial officer Milton Rawle if any plan was in place to help offset the increases. Rawle said while in the next few years, some debt service is coming off the city’s books, that money would go toward paying off the $5 million the city borrowed this year to pay for infrastructure upgrades. That bond issue necessitated a 1.1-mill property tax increase for city residents, which will be effective when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. It will be paid off over 15 years.
“The way the bond issue was set up, the first two years would be interest (on the $5 million) only, so the 1.1 mills would take care of that,” Rawle said. “Then, as the debt from the general fund comes off, that money will be reallocated to start paying for principal payments on that debt.”
Gavin said he didn’t vote to pass the budget because of the debt service being added on top of general expenses over the next several years.
“Where’s the money coming from?” Gavin said after Thursday’s meeting. “It’s not just this year. What about next year? That debt service is not going away, and there doesn’t seem to be a long term plan to pay for it.”
Last week, the council set a millage rate of 41.23 for city operations as well as general obligation bonds. The city will receive $6,885,410 in ad valorem taxes to go toward operations. A sales tax revenue of $8,500,000 is projected in the new budget, the same amount as was forecasted last year.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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