Council set to consider budget cuts

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: May 15, 2008

The Waynesboro City Council needs to cut around $600,000 from next year’s proposed budget, and it will have the weekend to ponder possibilities that City Manager Doug Walker will give to them.
Walker told the council during a budget work session Thursday that he, along with city staff, are taking a fresh look at budget cuts. He said his list of possible reductions – which he plans to have ready for the council this afternoon in advance of Monday’s budget work session – would exceed the amount needed to balance what is now a $39.4 million budget, about $1.5 million less than what he originally proposed.
With Councilman Frank Lucente introducing an ordinance earlier this week reducing Walker’s proposed real estate tax rate from 74 cents per $100 assessed value to 70 cents, it has forced the council into making the cuts. The majority of lost revenue is due to the tax cut.
Cutting the $585,000 stormwater program from the general fund would get the council within about $24,000 of balancing the budget, but a majority of the council has expressed a desire to pay for it through the general fund, rather than establishing a utility for the program.
“It’s all about doing as much as you can with what you’ve got,” Walker said.
Mayor Tom Reynolds reiterated his stance that council members should come forward with cuts.
“I will remind council to be thinking about what programs you’re willing to put on the chopping block, because we know it’s going to affect programs,” Reynolds said.
The council is expected to officially set the tax rate, as well as introduce the budget ordinance, at its May 22 meeting.
Walker told the council he wants “to get as close as possible to a budget you’re comfortable with by [next] Thursday.”
The council also heard from Public Works Director Brian McReynolds on proposed budgets for the water, sewer and refuse enterprise funds.
The water fund is slated for a 36.6-percent increase to $3.5 million. Major contributors to the increases include staff and operational expenses associated with a new wastewater treatment plant scheduled to open in November, as well as heavy equipment purchases.
McReynolds said he has been examining the operations of a similar plant in Tennessee. He expects Waynesboro’s plant to operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
“There is some difficulty in predicting the amount of staff necessary for a plant coming on in November,” McReynolds said. “The reason for that is because it’s totally based on pure demand.”
The sewer fund incorporates a 9.6-percent increase to $4.1 million, while the garbage fund will increase 1.3 percent to $1.1 million.