The city of Columbus is projecting a balanced budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Councilmen met Wednesday morning for a brisk budget review. The budget projects $23.26 million in expenditures and revenues, about $1 million smaller than the 2015-16 budget.
The biggest changes to the budget come in two areas. One is a $468,212 reduction in funding to Columbus Fire and Rescue, which Fire Chief Martin Andrews said is due to a new fire station under construction on Airline Road being included in last year’s budget.
Another is a $584,882 reduction in city administrative costs, most of which comes from a $537,951 reduction in capital expenses. Chief Financial Officer Milton Rawle said the reduction is mostly due to loans for a bulldozer and excavator the city budgeted for last fiscal year.
Debt service is also projected to be $274,818 less than last year. Rawle said the city will dedicate ad valorem mills specifically to debt service, rather than pulling money from the general fund.
Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong said the city will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. Sept. 6 to discuss the budget. The council will also determine the millage rate for the fiscal year.
Armstrong said the city’s projected millage for fiscal year 2016-17 should hold steady at 43.69 mills. He said the city had not yet received a millage request from the Columbus Municipal School District as of Wednesday’s meeting.
The council will meet to adopt the budget on Sept. 13.
This year’s budget process is different than prior years, when the council has started with a projected budget that significantly exceeded projected revenues and — over the course of several meetings — whittled down department heads’ “wish lists” to fit within revenues.
Instead, Mayor Robert Smith said the city allocated a budget to each department and told department heads to prioritize their lists of needs according to available funding. If a funding request came in over the expected budget, Smith said the department head would have to adjust to the alloted amount.
“We wanted to delete the dog and pony show we’ve had in the past, as far as a department head presenting their wish list, the council getting the wish list and having to come back to it two or three times to cut this and cut that out,” Smith said.
Smith said he’d hoped to “surprise” the council with a $242,000 surplus. However, that changed after an insurance commission meeting Tuesday where it was determined the city needed to spend more for employee insurance in fiscal year 2015-16 than expected. The city had budgeted $1.7 million for medical, dental, life and related insurance costs. However, the city has had to spend more than $2 million on insurance, driven in part by more insurance claims than expected.
Smith said the $383,000 insurance spending deficit wiped out the expected surplus, leaving a $141,000 deficit. He said Rawle then balanced the budget by reducing capital expenditures, overtime and other items.
Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner said he’s pleased with this year’s budget process. He pointed to things like the city’s soaring sales tax revenue — which Rawle noted is on track for the city’s best-ever year of collections — as signs that Columbus is thriving.
“Columbus is growing,” he said. “A lot of the times, people think that we are in desperate straits, but we’re not. I give my hats off to David Armstrong, the mayor and Milton. Things are going well.”
Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin said the new process is easier and similar to the budget process he’s used to in his professional career.
“This is a much simpler process,” Gavin said. “Everyone knows how much money they have. Of course everybody wants more money — you never have enough money. But we know what we’ve got. This way we can balance the budget. We’re not having to raise taxes or take money out of reserves to balance the budget, which I’ve always been opposed to.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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