During its first Fiscal Year 2020 budget hearing, the city of Columbus expects to finish the year with a surplus of nearly $900,000, but it will require an ad valorem tax hike to get there.
Prior to the start of Thursday’s meeting, Chief Operating Officer David Armstrong noted the city had placed an ad required by state law announcing its intentions to increase millage by 3.65 mills, a bump that would increase ad valorem revenue by $746,550 for a proposed budget of $28,928,258.
A public hearing on both the budget and the millage increase will be held at 5 p.m. on Sept. 5 at the municipal complex courtroom.
“The way the law is written, it seems kind of backward,” Armstrong said. “You have to set the millage before you adopt the budget. So we’ll have the public hearing and set the millage on Sept. 5 and should be able to adopt the budget on Sept. 12.”
The new millage would increase from 47.59 to 51.24.
Armstrong said the primary reason for the tax increase was to account for debt service, which will go from $528,868 this year to $869,727 in 2020, an increase of $341,000.
For taxpayers, the mill increase would be roughly $36 dollars annually on a property valuation of $100,000.
Even with the tax increase, the city’s revenue for 2020 would be less than the current year by $452,615. The city is projecting revenue drops in sales tax and garbage fee collections.
Based on the preliminary budget presented Thursday, the city would see a surplus of $892,922.
“I don’t think, in all my years, I’ve seen a surplus like this,” Armstrong said. “I was surprised. I think the reason is because of what the mayor has expressed to y’all twice with the cutbacks he proposed and the job the departments have done on spending.”
The budget proposal includes $23,035,335 in spending, a decrease of $765,408 compared to the current budget.
During the meeting, some department heads pushed back on budget items, which they said was based on the austerity measures — hiring/wage freezes, travel restrictions, etc. — implemented at Mayor Robert Smith’s request in March, rather than the actual needs.
Armstrong noted the budget reflected the current spending annualized to account for the final three months of the fiscal year.
Fire Chief Martin Andrews objected to cuts in his recommended spending for uniforms and supplies, which came in roughly $58,000 less than what he recommended, as well as $22,000 less for training than he requested.
“I’ll do what you tell me to do and will make it work,” Andrews said. “But this budget is based on the cuts we made when the mayor came to us and asked us to cut back. It isn’t what we need.”
Smith noted all department heads could make a similar argument.
“You can stand up and give reasons to justify why you need the funding, but so can every department head,” Smith said. “Your department is not the only one to have cuts. I hope you understand where we’re coming from. If the money isn’t there, what do we do?”
Andrews said in previous years, the fire department has used insurance rebate money to supplement equipment expenses. This year, he said, the rebate funds will go to paying off the balance on the new truck purchased earlier this year.
“This is the kind of costs that come with being a fire department,” Andrews said.
Other department heads made similar requests to increase funding, including the crime lab, inspection department, code enforcement, public works, garage and parks/recreation.
Overall, budgets were cut for 10 of 16 departments and 12 of 19 budget categories based on projected current year spending.
The biggest cuts came in Administration (by $640,000, most of which reflects the city’s decision to end its agreement with a health clinic that offered free care to employees and dependents), fire department ($456,715) and solid waste ($128,172).
Armstrong noted that some of those cuts reflected abnormal spending that resulted from the February tornado.
Departments that saw increases include police ($145,771), Trotter Convention Center ($118,108), information-technology ($81,987) and streets ($71,522).
Armstrong said the city would likely hold a second budget hearing to address some of the recommendations from department heads made Thursday.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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