The budget includes $6.7 million in general funds and $2.3 million in utility funds.
“This is a very workable budget,” Fann stated. “As far as budgets go, it’s reasonable and conservative on numbers.”
In putting the budget together, Fann said that he, along with the city’s financial officer, Amy Orebaugh, erred on the side of caution.
“We didn’t make things look pretty for pretty’s sake,” Fann said.
All total, the city expects to collect $9.4 million in revenues, a reduction of $108,000 compared to last year.
“It’s our belief that revenues will be down and not up next year and we needed to make some concessions. The task we were left with was
what to do with the expenditures.”
Fann said that in several instances, department turnover over the past year helped to make up for the anticipated loss in revenue for 2013.
“There was a good bit that we were able to trim due to personnel changes.”
According to budget documents, the city’s shop, governmental buildings and engineering departments were dissolved and those department
budgets were dispersed to other areas.
Fann said the biggest loss in revenue comes from the non-renewal of a $115,000 COPS grant. The COPS grant, short for Community Oriented Policing Services, helped pay for several city officer positions over the last three years, according to Fann.
The grant comes with a three-year consecutive limit and because of that, it can not be renewed this year, explained Fann. However, he did say that even with the grant loss, no city police officer positions would be lost.
Fann said there is a five percent variance between the city’s proposed 2013 expenditures and the corresponding estimated revenue, which nets $505,686 dollars.
“This is the first time in my six-year term that I have been excited about our budget,” said city commissioner Scotty Tillery. “It looks like we’re in good shape."
Amendment that the City Commission adopted in December 2012 a full 12 months after year end. But she would have to objective to report on those facts. The 2011 audit will reveal the financial shape that the city is really experiencing. Hopefully, the Standard will do their job.