City still needs to trim budget

Published 10:51 pm Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Selma officials need to trim $114,000 off the budget to make ends meet.

Mayor George Evans informed the Selma City Council of the progress on the budget for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, during the council’s meeting Tuesday and in a work session Monday.

“Revenue streams are light right now,” the mayor said, referring to tax monies that come into the city for operation.

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Property taxes and other fees usually don’t begin pouring into city coffers until December, but produce a regular income stream until March, he said.

Currently, the city is operating from the 2010 budget. The fiscal year for 2010 ended Sept. 30, but because the present year’s budget was incomplete, the council adopted the old one, council President Cecil Williamson said.

Evans told the council he had reduced his office’s budget by $23,000. Evans’ budget for the 2010 fiscal year was $168,170.62.

Other options for trimming the upcoming year’s budget include reducing the police force numbers from 60 to 58.

Evans said the police department now has 54 officers on staff. Two additional officers will be sworn in soon and three are in training, he said.

If someone applied to the police department and made it through the process, he or she would not begin working until March, said Evans, when revenue begins to come into the city.

“We will try to leave it at 58 for now,” he said.

Salaries and wages alone in the police department ran the city $2,928,317.25 from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010, according to city records. The council had approved a budget for salaries and wages for the police department of $2,917,324, which means the police department went $10,993.25 over its line item for salaries and wages alone during the fiscal year.

However, the police department’s total budget of $4,724,090 for fiscal 2009 stayed within its means. City records show the police department has spent 97.28 percent of its total budget or $4,595,543.10.

Additionally, agencies in line to receive money from the city could see a 25 percent reduction under the mayor’s plan to trim the budget. During the present budget year, the city allocated $358,675 for various agencies, including the Dallas Selma Community Action Agency, Selma Youth Development, YMCA and others.

“I just don’t see how we cannot reduce this and make our budget numbers,” Evans said.

The council is scheduled to meet at a yet-to-be-announced work session to hammer out more cuts in the budget. The council is expected to adopt the new budget at its next meeting Tuesday, Oct. 26.

“This is a work in progress,” the mayor said.