Council to hash out cutbacks for next year’s budget

Trying to find a way to deal with a projected 32 percent reduction in Maricopa’s operating budget, the City Council will meet this evening to review recommendations on trimming down expenses, which include a salary freeze and delaying new projects.

Last week, members of the budget and finance subcommittee got a glimpse of the proposals to balance the budget. Nicole Dailey, assistant to the city manager, and Finance Director Cynthia Sneed outlined a plan that called for the general fund budget to be $25.5 million for fiscal year 2010, down from $37.6 million for the current year. Council members spent the weekend looking over the budget plan and will begin adding their own recommendations tonight as they must vote on the budget before the end of the fiscal year in June.

Among the suggestions to pare down the city’s expenses was pushing back the construction of projects such as a teen center and skate park. Funds for building the facilities are available through Maricopa’s Capital Improvement Plan, but staff salaries and benefits would have come from the city’s general fund.

“We’re going to have to put some things off for a while,” City Manager Kevin Evans told the subcommittee.

The recommended salary freeze would not apply to all city staff members due to memorandums of understanding with specific departments.

Salary reductions and unpaid furloughs, two cost-saving methods that many municipalities are turning to in the economic downturn, are not part of the current plan, but Sneed said they could be added if the council wanted to consider the options.

The city has already begun implementing some of the proposed cutbacks, as it announced on Monday that 11 employees would be losing their jobs (see related story).

The budget plan reveals exactly how bad Maricopa is reeling from the recession. The city’s sales taxes revenue is down 64 percent, or $5.7 million, year to date and permitting revenue, once the driving force of the city’s economy, has plummeted 229 percent ($1.3 million). Property tax collections are up 31 percent ($1.3 million), which is likely due to the inclusions of homes from the recent annexation.

The staff’s budget recommendations leave the city’s so-called “rainy-day” fund intact, but the council may have to dip into the reserve for contingency funding, as none was included in the current plan.

Councilman Joe Estes said while the city is hurting, Maricopa would be worse off if the city hadn’t set aside half of one-time funds generated during the city’s explosive growth, such as permit fees and construction sales tax, into the city’s reserve fund.

“That’s the one thing that’s allowed us to continue to operate the past year at the current levels that we’re at,” he said. “…We’re a little bit insulated from the money we set aside for the rainy-day fund, but it’s not just raining, it’s pouring right now.”

Estes said he’d like to see more spending cuts in addition to what’s spelled out in the budget proposal. “I think we still have a lot of wants as opposed to needs in the budget that we’ve got to get under control,” he said. “I still think we’ve got some fat on the cow and we need the departments to trim back even more.”

The budget review meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Global Water Center.