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Hubbard auditor doubts city’s partial ’09 budget
The partial budget will be only for the first part of the year.
HUBBARD — City council has adopted a financial plan to get through the first quarter of 2009, but those handling the finances say that plan may not have been the best move.
Council members, at a meeting earlier this week, approved the partial budget devised by dividing the 2008 budget by four and using that figure to allot funds for the first quarter of 2009.
Councilman Patton Gilliland said council is waiting to see how city income tax revenues start to come in 2009 before setting a permanent budget for the year. He also said council is waiting to see how negotiations with employees in the street and water departments pan out.
The city dipped into savings and investments for about $250,000 to meet all financial obligations this year, and Gilliland said it looks as if the income tax revenue for the 2008 year will be about $175,000 less than expected. Gilliland, however, said council may not have to reduce spending in 2009 from what was spent in 2008.
City Auditor Michael Villano is not as optimistic about the 2009 city budget, however. He said the partial budget should have included some cost-reducing measures.
“I don’t think this was the best idea. The underlying problem is still there. We are setting it aside and hoping it will get better, but it will not get any better,” Villano said. “The cash-flow issue is still lingering out there, and we are probably making it worse. The longer you put something off the worse it gets.”
Villano has said the city, much like other area communities, has seen a reduction in revenue because of layoffs and other losses in resident income.
Property taxes, he said, also have been down because of higher numbers of foreclosures.
The auditor said the city, because of those losses in revenue, has to make some hard decisions concerning finances.
“We have to go back and look at all those tough issues — staffing, restructuring and how we offer services. No matter how you slice it, it always comes back to those things and staffing. It is unfortunate but something every industry is facing,” Villano added.
Mayor Arthur Magee has said staff reductions will be a last consideration. He said Hubbard already is operating with a minimal number of city employees.
Council did decide to reduce the pay of two city workers.
The mayor’s secretary and the road department superintendent had been given pay increases of 31‚Ñ2 percent in 2007 by the administration, but council rescinded those increases, bringing their pay back to pre-increase levels of $26,500 and $42,160, respectively.
Gilliland said the increases were rescinded because they were given by the Magee administration without council’s consent.
jgoodwin@vindy.com