Budget Talks Ongoing
The City Council held a brief budget meeting Wednesday, but had no numbers to talk about.
Finance Committee Chairman Rashid Burney said proposed cuts have been given to the administration for review, to make sure they will not harm city operations. The council expects to discuss the cuts during the agenda session Tuesday.
New City Administrator Marc Dashield and Finance Director Ray Daniels attended the meeting. The city had no finance director since March and no city administrator since October. The council began budget deliberations in September but was apparently willing to allow the new officials some input, even though Councilman Don Davis reminded everyone that once it is introduced, the budget is in the council’s hands.
The council received the budget from the mayor with an 8.2 percent tax increase. The governing body’s goal is to whittle the budget increase down to the cost of living increase, or about 3 percent. Councilman Cory Storch said the council should think in the spirit of Gov. Jon Corzine’s State of the State address and “become as lean and mean as possible.”
Corzine proposed a 4 percent cap on the property tax levy, in contrast to amounts as high as 7 percent in the past two decades.
Storch said his “strong hope” is that the city can hold to a 3 percent increase.
“We don’t want to dip into the surplus,” he said. “We may need it next year.”
The city is already seven months into the 2007 fiscal year that began July 1. City operations have been funded with temporary appropriations every month since then.
--Bernice Paglia
Finance Committee Chairman Rashid Burney said proposed cuts have been given to the administration for review, to make sure they will not harm city operations. The council expects to discuss the cuts during the agenda session Tuesday.
New City Administrator Marc Dashield and Finance Director Ray Daniels attended the meeting. The city had no finance director since March and no city administrator since October. The council began budget deliberations in September but was apparently willing to allow the new officials some input, even though Councilman Don Davis reminded everyone that once it is introduced, the budget is in the council’s hands.
The council received the budget from the mayor with an 8.2 percent tax increase. The governing body’s goal is to whittle the budget increase down to the cost of living increase, or about 3 percent. Councilman Cory Storch said the council should think in the spirit of Gov. Jon Corzine’s State of the State address and “become as lean and mean as possible.”
Corzine proposed a 4 percent cap on the property tax levy, in contrast to amounts as high as 7 percent in the past two decades.
Storch said his “strong hope” is that the city can hold to a 3 percent increase.
“We don’t want to dip into the surplus,” he said. “We may need it next year.”
The city is already seven months into the 2007 fiscal year that began July 1. City operations have been funded with temporary appropriations every month since then.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 7:23 AM
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