Council had a meeting tonight and went over some financial scenarios so that we might offer the staff some guidance on the next budget.  We discussed many variations but finally agreed on a guidance document that holds average tax bills flat on the general fund side next year.  On the fire levy side it funds the “fire truck fund” at 1 cent.  That’s an increase of half a cent over last year but a quarter of a cent less than was requested by the Fire and Rescue committee.  We’ll take a formal vote on this guidance at a Council meeting in a couple of weeks.

This same guidance document indicates that, absent significant budget cuts in out years, tax bills will go up somewhat to pay for a bond issue in 2014-15 and the fire fighters and police officers we’ve hired on the Federal grant.  I fully expect the Council to take a good hard look at that in the years to come and to make adjustments as time goes by.  Remember, this is the same Council that has reduced the City budget by about 13% over the past several years.  We ain’t doing anything all that crazy.  However, I would also posit that I (one man’s opinion here) am not prepared to reduce the number of Police Officers or Fire Fighters in our City.  The police officers we added last year (opposed by some) brings our Police Department back to 2007 staffing levels.  That works for me.  I’m not willing to sacrifice safety for a couple of bucks.  That’s not what our City has historically done nor what we should do in the future.

Significantly, this guidance maintains our fund balance (rainy day fund) at the Council’s dictated policy level of 13%.  It also does not pay for operations out of one-time money.  This budget also funds several new unfunded mandates from the General Assembly.

I know this is short on detail but we’ll vote on the final document in a couple of weeks.  The detail will follow as part of the budget process.  I’m comfortable with this guidance.  We still have to go through the budget process and I am positive that there will be cuts and/or a re-allocation of funds as a part of that process.  There always is.