Let the marathon begin.
City Council begins its annual dive into the budget today, kicking off a series of daylong meetings to pore over Mayor Lenny Curry’s spending plan. It’ll be a first for four of the seven-member Finance Committee led by veteran council member Bill Gulliford.
Those new members — Vice Chair Anna Lopez Brosche, Danny Becton, Aaron Bowman and Reggie Gaffney — will have an advantage council members of the past several years didn’t.
“It’s balanced,” said Gulliford, with a laugh. “I think it’s a pretty well thought-out budget in a short period of time.”
The past several years haven’t begun as smoothly. Extraordinary lapses, errors and a reliance on borrowing caused the Finance Committee to start in the budgetary hole, working its way back to balance by cutting millions.
This year, the feeling is different.
“I really anticipate it’s going to be pretty smooth,” said council member Lori Boyer, who joins Gulliford and John Crescimbeni as the veterans of the committee. “This just seems like it’s a reasonable hill rather than an extraordinary mountain.”
Boyer said she has no big objections to Curry’s priorities and mostly everything stayed at least flat from last year.
In current fiscal times, “flat is the new up,” said Brosche.
The newcomer said she’s gone through “the big book” a few times and wants to understand the process a bit better.
For instance, annual increases in various contractual obligations — she’d like an explanation as to why. Not in a negative way, but an educational way.
Veteran members might know already, she said, but for those offering a fresh set of eyes on the process, it could help.
“It’s an opportunity to understand the departments and what we’re doing and why,” she said. “It’s not an indictment, but really just an opportunity to understand deeper.”
Boyer’s been through several budgets and said this one hasn’t resulted in any big surprises or concerns.
Another newcomer said he thought the same.
“There’s nothing there that goes ‘wow,’” Becton said. “Nothing that really sticks out as being overfunded or underfunded.”
But, he said, that doesn’t mean it won’t be a tight budget. Most of the projected revenue increases are being swallowed by issues like workers’ compensation and benefits, he said.
Gulliford agrees this year “looks pretty good” in terms of a spending plan, but the future isn’t as clear. He points to a projection of borrowing as much as $90 million, but doesn’t blame council or the administration for that predicament.
“We’re just short revenue,” he said, indicating the city has been behind on much-needed maintenance.
It’s also the time of year when departments and special interests lobby for their causes.
“It’s been an extremely busy time,” said Bowman. “We’re going to have some tough decisions to make.”
He declined to say which groups had visited or what his thoughts were on the spending plan — he has ideas, but wants to “keep my cards to myself” for now. He said he wanted to hear from the council auditors staff with an open mind and hear other committee members’ input.
Despite the early thoughts that much won’t have to be cut, conversely there might not be much found for council members to add elsewhere.
But, if money is found, some have ideas.
Boyer said her first thought would be to take additional funds to help offset borrowing slated to replace vehicles. Curry has asked to borrow almost $16 million to start filling in that backlog, mainly from public safety. Gulliford said he’d like to see more money in the pool for vehicle replacement, too.
Additionally, Boyer said she’d like to help get employee salaries back to normal levels. Many workers took a 2 percent pay cut in past years to help with budgetary woes, with those losses never reinstated.
Curry has put aside $2.3 million for collective bargaining. Boyer said she’d like to potentially add to that.
That’s important to Becton, too, although he isn’t clear if collective bargaining is truly needed to restore those cuts.
“Maybe we can’t fix it all in one year, but should we continue to make it zero?” he asked. “I am not sure that is the right thing to do.”
Today’s meeting comprises an overview from Sam Mousa, Curry’s chief administrative officer, and the budgets of police and fire.
Others are scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays throughout the month, culminating in a final balanced budget in September.
(904) 356-2466