Minutes 05/03/1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1988 1988, concerning our State education funding, in which he quoted from the Public Education Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to the effect that, "(t)he State cannot shield localities from sound management decisions forever." Having already decided the School Board budget issue, if we are inclined to make any further reductions in the expenditure side of the City budget, at the present time we can only look to the City Administration's budget. While I would once again defer to Mr. Brown to find specific reductions, I would offer a few suggestions for Council's consideration. Certainly $97,000 worth of contingency line items could be eliminated and the major contingency reserve increased by that amount. Additionally, $25,199 for the hand-held meter reading devices could be eliminated from the Finance Department's proposed expenditures and $34,700 for a pavement maintainer could be eliminated from the Public Works Department's proposed expenditures. Also, proposed contributions to the Virginia Museum of Natural History, the YMCA and Piedmont Arts Association could be reduced to $10,000, $10,000 and $2,500 respectively, reducing total expenditures by $29,500. Taken together, these reductions would amount to $186,300, which would bring the General Fund unappropriated surplus back up to $376,000 which, in my opinion, would be a much more realistic figure. But, this action for Fiscal Year 1988-1989 would be only a drop in the bucket. Additionally, I believe Mr. Brown should be charged with the task of reducing the decline in the unappropriated surplus of the four major funds by one half, or $1,270,470,~ for Fiscal Year 1989-1990 and by half again for Fiscal Year 1990-1991. While I believe it would be difficult, if not impossible, to check our runaway spending in one year, I believe to do so over the next three years is our only responsible course of action and the adoption of such a goal might bring some rationality to our budget process which, this year, has been chaotic in the extreme. After some discussion, and on motion by Councilman Cole, seconded by Vice-Mayor Willjams, Council unanimously accepted the reductions by the City Manager in this proposed 1988-89 City Budget, as set forth in his memorandum listing dated April 22, 1988, except for the $110,000 reduction allocated to the City School Board's 1988-89 budget request, which amount Council restored by action taken in its regular meeting held April 26, 1988.