-
City budget schematic/ Graphic by Todd Kleiboer
Police, fire expenses increase, downtown decreases
The city of Sulphur Springs reviewed its proposed $32 million budget during an Aug. 13 budget session, focusing specifically on how much is allotted to each department. Although the budget has increased $2 million since the 2019 fiscal year, there is no department where expenditures have increased significantly.
Public safety is the largest category of Sulphur Springs budget, accounting for approximately 50% of the general fund. Each department has seen their budget increase by approximately $100,000. The police department received $3.3 million in 2019 and will receive $3.4 million in 2020, whereas the fire department received $2 million in 2019 and will receive $2.1 million in 2020. These expenditures are spread out among salary, supplies, telephone, weed control and other expenditures.
A new expense for the city is the Thermo property, which was budgeted at $3,500 in 2019 but in 2020 holds a $50,000 budget. The projected expense for 2020 is lower at $40,000, however.
The city is proposing to cut the downtown budget by $25,000 in the year 2020 from the previous year, drawn mostly from salary, electrical and laundry. At the water plant and capital construction, however, the city is projecting salaries will increase.
In its first fully funded year, the street improvement project is projected to bring in half a million dollars, in contrast to the approximately $300,000 it netted last year in the partial year it was implemented. However, as the aim of the street improvement program is to use the funds to repair the streets, the city will spend all but $2,500 of the funds raised in 2020-2021 on its summer paving program.
In 2020, the city is projecting the downtown reinvestment zone will pull in $100,275, which, in contrast, is higher than 2019’s $88,051. This will be used to pay debt service, according to city documents.
The city is also hoping for grants, including those for the crosstown trails project and one for the Pacific Park project.
The city is cutting out $18,000 of miscellaneous expenses but has $10,000 in court security and $15,000 in court technology due to COVID-19 they did not have the previous year.
“We’ve done extraordinarily well through the COVID experience,” said City Manager Marc Maxwell. “We are a community whose industrial base is not cyclical. We don’t participate in the big economic party, so we don’t suffer from the hangover either.”
The city has not received the total sum of its Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding yet but expects to within the coming months, Maxwell stated.
In fact, according to Finance Director Lesa Smith, the city is projecting sales tax for the fiscal year will come in higher than the previous year—not lower.
Maxwell says this is due to one word: resilience.
“We are surviving quite well,” Maxwell said.
The city will hold the final budget hearing at their regular September city council meeting on Sept. 1.