By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
It didn’t take long—about 10 minutes—for the Jacksonville City Council on Thursday to approve its $18.9 million general budget for 2011.
The council, in the same ordinance, approved a $2.78 million street budget, a $1.7 million sanitation fund and $1.05 million for its emergency medical-services fund.
Only the proposed expenditures for the sanitation fund were higher than the projected income.
The approved general budget of $18,946,105 included $12.4 million for public safety; $4.1 million for public works; $1.99 million for general government, and $503,829 for judicial.
Jacksonville’s proposed 2011 budget is about $100,000 less than this year’s budget but still gives employees a small raise and maintains services. The projected expenditures do outstrip the projected income by about $500,000, but the city will make that up but shift some money from its capital-improvement fund and its reserves, if necessary.
Mayor Gary Fletcher was pleased with the budget and said that it’s very conservative and any increase the city may see will come from higher census numbers. “If we get more than what we are expecting, that’ll be icing,” the mayor said.
The city will give its employees a flat $500 raise instead of a percentage raise as it has in the past. City council members will not receive a raise and all city services will stay at their current levels, but an increase is expected in sanitation rates.
Both the mayor and Finance Director Paul Mushrush said that something needs to be done with sanitation. Mushrush explained that if the city continues without a rate increase or a reduction in garbage and trash services, the department will lose about $1 million over the next five years.
The department is already running a deficit of more than $400,000.
The department has not raised its rates in almost a decade.
Alderman Reedie Ray chairs the committee looking into options. The committee has met once already and plans another meeting next week.
Ray said it looks like a rate increase will be necessary, but the committee will have a public hearing before making any recommendation to the council.
Nearly 67 percent of the expected revenue for the 2011 general budget will come from various sales taxes, followed by intergovernmental transfers at 7.8 percent, operating transfers at 6.4 percent and utility franchise fees at 5.9 percent.
The bulk of expenditures will be for public safety at 64 percent of the total budget, followed by public works at 22 percent, general government at 11 percent and judicial at 3 percent.
