Tough Budget Times mean tough decisions

Staff will be meeting with the City Council in closed session tonight to discuss the impact of labor costs on our current financial situation. I'll try to give you a good overview in the next couple of posts where we stand financially:

2008-2009 Budget
Furloughs, early retirements and vacancies reduced expenditures by approximately $3.7 million.
Revenues were $700,000 below original estimates
Overall, about $3 million savings over original budget
Previous year budget savings of about $2 million

2009-2010 Budget
Year to Year Revenue decrease of about $2.5 million
Some operations have already been shifted out of General Fund
Beginning Budget Gap of $7 million
Proposing to carry over previous year savings ($3 million) to close portion of gap
Leaves about $4 million gap to reduce (15 percent of General Fund)

The good news is that what was a $14 million gap is now down to $4 million. The bad news is that we've already done just about everything we possibly can to close that gap. The only remaining alternatives are to reduce our service levels by reducing our staffing level, or seeing if our employees are willing to give back some of the cash gained from labor contracts that were negotiated in a very different economic climate.

I realize that it is hard to accept the fact that reductions in pay are needed to keep our jobs intact. However, for any of you that have family working in the private sector, this shouldn't be surprising at all. Huge cuts in pay and benefits are the norm right now in the private sector. We've been very fortunate in the public sector.