City Council Continues Work on Fiscal Year 2019 Budget
Sep 11th, 2018
Posted in: General News
Ahead of a meeting of the Finance Committee next week, members of the City Council are continuing to work on Mayor Stimpson’s proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget. That meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 18th at 2:00 p.m. in the Council Conference Room on the 9th Floor of the South Tower in Government Plaza.
Since the Mayor recently released his Budget, Council Members have received a large amount of feedback from citizens concerned with the proposed cuts to cost centers and performance contract programs which receive crucial funding from the city. Many of these proposed cuts were the subject of comments at last week’s Public Hearing on the Budget.
Members of the Budget Task Force, which includes Councilmen Fred Richardson and John Williams and Councilwoman Bess Rich, are working to address these concerns by identifying key priorities and any unnecessary spending. To assist with this, they have requested key information from the Administration including breakdowns for several line items and departments.
“Given this is very basic information and they have just completed the budget process, I’m hopeful it will be passed along quickly,” said Councilman Fred Richardson. “With that said, if for some reason they do not produce it in a timely manner and we are forced to delay passing the budget by the end of the month, it will in no way disrupt city operations.”
Under the Zoghby Act, if the City Budget is not passed by the first day of the next fiscal year, the city continues to operate normally under the past year’s budget.
Members of the Finance Committee include Councilmen Joel Daves – Chairman, Fred Richardson and John Williams.