Maysville City Commissioners and Mayor Charles Cotterill have started the annual process of formulating a budget for the approaching fiscal year.
Commissioners and Cotterill, along with City Manager Matt Wallingford and Comptroller Penny Standfield met last week in the first of what will be several budget workshops before the final product receives approval.
The city’s 2020-2021 budget begins with a $100,000 deficit, below the usual beginning deficit of about $500,000 over the past few years, Wallingford said. He attributed the low number to Standfield.
“Let me say we are very fortunate to have the comptroller we have,” he said.
Considering an expected decrease in gross receipts and sales tax revenues because of the COVID-19 pandemic, “this has taken every bit of fluff” out, Wallingford said.
The total projected budget general fund stands at $12,573,627 in revenue and $12,808,080 in expenses. The utility fund has $4,551, 750 in projected revenue with $4,656,000 in estimated expenses. The carryover or contingency fund is $11 million.
“It is a projected budget, the budget will not end as projected,” Wallingford said. Deficits are generally lower than originally estimated, he said.
“I am not recommending any raises,” Wallingford said. He also said the state has frozen retirement rates which should help with expenses.
Police and fire budgets were first considered with other departments planned for consideration in future sessions, Wallingford said.
The fire department has requested $88,000 for a sprinter ambulance to add to its aging fleet, Wallingford said. The sprinter would actually save money since it would be gas rather than diesel powered and get better mileage for transfers than current ambulances, he said.
The police department has a $80,000 request for cruisers to replace some older vehicles in its fleet. The city has not purchased any cruisers since 2016, Wallingford said.
There are no new capital projects in the proposed budget, Wallingford said.
The new budget must be in place by July 1.
The next budget workshop will be held during a special city commission meeting on Thursday, May 14 at 4:45 p.m., in city commission chambers. Because of COVID-19, the meeting is closed to the public but will be live streamed on the city’s Facebook page.
