Tackling the numbers… Elizabethton City Council meets in a workshop on 2020-21 budget
Published 4:19 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2020
1 of 2
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton City Council met in a budget workshop on Monday at the Elizabethton Electric System to work on the 2020-2021 city budget. It will be a trying year for the budget needs of the city after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders It was a numbers game on Monday at the Elizabethton Electric System as members of the Elizabethton City Council met in a budget workshop in an effort to put some shape to the 2020-2021 city budget.
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
Like many city and county governments throughout the state, the Elizabethton City Council has the burden of trying to come up with a workable budget as the city heads into a new fiscal year which means everybody will probably not be happy but with the COVID-19 pandemic playing economic Russian roulette, this year may be more about surviving than thriving.
“In the midst of COVID-19, we have been trying to figure out how to come at this process,” said City Manager Daniel Estes. “This budget was easy except if it wasn’t going to be enough because if you drop everything that you could drop if that is enough of a cut then it makes budgeting relatively simple.
“But if it’s not enough, then it makes budgeting really, really difficult. I think what we are going to see is that we found enough, and it isn’t pretty, we are putting things off that need to be done but we can survive, we can operate and protect payroll where we don’t have the larger decisions to make.
“I think that we are going to be okay. We want to be in a safe position in the fall.”
The board began by reviewing the general fund for the year-end estimates of the fiscal year 2019-20 which showed that the forecast amount for the time period was $18,245,782.05 and the current budget stands at $19,843,929 dollars which resulted in a difference of $1,598,146.95 for revenues.
In expenditures, the forecast was for a total of $16,858,873.26 and the current budget stands at $20,053,688.32 – a difference of $3,194,815.06.
The numbers for revenue show that there was sales tax decrease due to COVID-19 of $388,650. Estes did remind Council that these figures actually lag by about two months.
With many people staying at home during the pandemic and not driving as much played into police fine revenue being down by $20,900.
Looking ahead to revenues in the fiscal year 2020-2021, the original budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year was $19,536,405 while the proposed budget for 2020-2021 is $17,350,587 a difference of $2,185,818.
On the expenditure side, the original budget for 2019-2020 was $19,536,405 while the proposed expenditure budget for 2020-2021 stands at $17,401,164 leaving a difference of $2,135,241. This leaves a fund balance appropriation difference of $50,577.
As the board proceeded through different line items, one sticking point came up when health insurance for city employees was discussed.
There has been a five percent increase in premiums while there are no changes to plan design, deductible, co-pays, or out-of-pocket maximums.
Currently, employees who are on an employee-only plan have their premium covered by the city but it was proposed to have the city pay 96 percent of the premium and the employees would be responsible for four percent ($20) toward the premium.
After questioning by several of the council members including Councilman Kim Birchfield, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Carter, and Councilman Jeff Treadway, the council wasn’t in favor of passing the $20 premium charge to the employees due to there not being any type of pay increase included to city employees in this year’s budget.
The money to cover the premiums will have to be found to cover the added premium before the budget is passed.
Council also looked at Capital Expenditures where they have an allowance of $327,858 in grant money to apply toward some of the 14 projects they have on a waiting list to be completed.
A couple of the projects that have been put off but council agreed that they might need to be addressed includes roof replacement at the city garage ($76,862) and the Library roof replacement ($75,000).
They also discussed the potential addition of one of three patrol cars requested and replacing the City Hall main door and upgrading the security system at City Hall as well.
Other expenditures for Capital Projects that will be fully funded due to bond sales include the police building renovations, a new fire truck, a Parks and Rec maintenance building, and the Elizabethton City Schools project.
The Elizabethton City Council will meet in their regularly scheduled June meeting on Thursday, June 11.
