With a shortfall of roughly $1.6 million, the Columbus City Council is now faced with the difficult task of balancing the Fiscal Year 2013 budget.
During a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, Chief Financial Officer Mike Bernsen discussed the new budget with the members of the council.
“We reduced the department head’s wish list budget from about $29 million down to $24 million,” Bernsen said. “Right now we have a deficit of $1,679,407.21. We have to do something about this.”
Bernsen said personnel was one of the “big boy” areas of the budgets.
“Increase in overtime were only about $54,000,” Bernsen said. “We cut the police back by $50,000 but the fire department was up $100,000. The council also recently approved the hiring of six grass cutters for the public works department — this will have to be carried over into the next year. We also had a big increase in retirement — it’s up 14.26 percent. The budget has 16 1/2 new hires. The court has also asked for a collections clerk, which is a full-time position.”
Public Works Director Mike Pratt has asked for 10 new employees and several pieces of equipment in the budget. Mayor Robert Smith said the “wish list” had already been cut.
“This may seem like a wish list for department heads, but we have already made a lot of cuts before bringing this to the council,” said Smith.
According to Bernsen, public works has $324,000 in personnel and $605,000 in equipment in the proposed budget. Bernsen said the equipment would create a debt service of $100,300 yearly for five years.
“We don’t have any major projects in this budget,” Bernsen said. “But you are still going to have to come up with $350,000 for the drainage project. If our budget remains as is, it would increase the millage rate by 9.12 mills. Of course that’s not realistic — we aren’t even considering this type of millage increase.
Chief Operating Officer David Armstrong said the millage request from the Columbus Municipal School District had been approved and the rate would not increase in FY 13.
“The millage rate will stay the same for the school district,” Armstrong said. “It will remain at 65.87 mills.”
The council will meet today at 2 p.m. to discuss the next round of budget cuts.
“I’m not going to recommend anything, but if these labor increases are permanent …” Bernsen said. “We are struggling as it is.”
“I’m not saying personnel and equipment aren’t important, but we can’t raise taxes,” Ward 5 Councilman Bill Gavin said.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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