No leeway available in city's budget crunch

Thursday, September 8, 2011

As the city braces for budget restrictions as it prepares for the new fiscal year, it lacks any leeway to add money to programs that lost funding.

Members of the city council made those comments during their Aug. 22 meeting as two local organizations hoped to restore their budget requests.

The city starts the new fiscal year Oct. 1 with a $63,000 tax revenue shortfall triggered, in part, by the city's real estate market crash. In addition, the city chopped another $80,000 from this year's budget to settle a lawsuit with a local church, which successfully sued the city over a religious freedom issue.

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  • Ok so the city is short on money. How??? I can somewhat understand the lawsuit one. They were not prepared to pay out money for something like that. The real estate market did go down, I agree on that part, but for businesses here in town our taxes went up...dramatically!!! I don't think that short fall is as big as they are claiming.

    -- Posted by robinhood1 on Thu, Sep 8, 2011, at 3:50 PM
  • That church across from Albertsons should be mighty proud of there contribution to the citys debt ! Any of their members care to comment ?

    -- Posted by bodine69 on Fri, Sep 9, 2011, at 7:34 AM
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    Yea things our taxes are ment for...like paying a crooked....(laughing) church and lawyers......lol

    -- Posted by Trouble2011 on Fri, Sep 9, 2011, at 5:50 PM
  • Just curious, what percent of a pay raise was included in the budget for city employees. And are the city planner and lawyer being fired for shoddy performance with regard to the church lawsiut.

    -- Posted by gmoney on Fri, Sep 9, 2011, at 10:18 PM
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