As for the meeting, the discussion of topic was the 2009-2010 fiscal budget. A number of interesting things came out of the preparation of the budget. First of all South Ogden has finally caught up with the recession. Sale Tax Revenue is down 2.8 percent, since a major portion of our budget is Sales Tax, that makes things very hard. Scott Darrington, city manager, commented we are now in uncharted territory. Therefore a number of cuts will need to be made. Here are some of the potential cuts for South Ogden:
- Already South Ogden has cut their budget by 5 percent, but now we are looking at an additional 7 percent cut. Total will be a 12 percent cut to the cities budget starting in July. The goal is not cut personal or services.
- A soft hiring freeze is now in affect, positions that open up will be evaluated and decided if they are needed.
- The average salary increase will probably only be 1 percent this year. But a lengthy discussion took place on whether this should even be paid at all. Instead the idea presented by some would be to forgo any pay increases and instead cut some of the cost to health benefits for city employees. We will see how this goes.
Overall we are looking at $444,000 deficit headed into the next fiscal year. When I first heard this I was shocked. Mr. Darrington was then quick to point out our city has a rainy day fund of 18 percent of our budget. In fact we have had too much money in the fund in the past and have been cited by the state auditors. This fund has us nearly $1.6 million to help us in tough times. South Ogden should be just fine for awhile. The one thought I have is if the state legislature didn't dare use their rainy day fund because of a potential fall in the economy. Why are we so quick to use ours?
Finally the Rec Center. Apparently costs are coming in lower than expected. South Ogden Jr. High will now be about $5 Million under budget for a monster amount of $17 Million. Therefore our bond will now only need to be $2.1 Million. The only other good news was the idea of doing a 15 year bond instead of a 20 year bond. The cost would be the same, but we will now pay off the bond faster saving us all $190,000 a year. The cost to the average family will be $36 a year in property taxes. Still way too high of an increase in my mind.
Election year is upon us...who will run?
2 comments:
Ben Joe I don't like the idea of anyone losing their job but times like these give the city and other government agencies a chance to trim the fat. I like the idea of using the rainy day fund for an emergency but the city should take a good look at its expenses and see if they can make any cuts first. The other question I have is why does the city have such a big fund???? Give the money back to the taxpayer so they can put it back in the economy, how they want to it's their money... Time to add your name to the running list.
Haha, give the money back to the taxpayers? Any organization, especially a city, NEEDS a savings account. The fund is not excessively large - in just three bad recession years (like the ones we've experienced) it'd be gone, and that is assuming that the years don't get progressively worse.
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