Saturday, July 26, 1997
Council approves budget
By ANTHONY WILSON / Abilene Reporter-News
After rejecting a planned expansion of the police vehicle impound,
the Abilene City Council approved a proposed $47.6 million budget
Friday.
Wrecker service owners successfully lobbied the council to
eliminate a round-the-clock impound, insisting the move would
slice into their business.
But that was the only change to City Manager Roy McDaniel's
proposed budget, based on maintaining a property tax rate of 53.9
cents per $100 valuation.
"It's extra important we held the line," Councilman
Don Drennan said. "It doesn't get any easier. This is something
we can all live with."
City officials still don't know the effect on homeowners' tax
levies. The city won't receive its certified tax rolls until Aug.
11, but Finance Director David Wright projects the proposed tax
rate will be about 3 percent above the effective rate - the level
at which the city can raise the same amount of taxes as the previous
year.
Citizens can sound off on the proposed tax rate and budget
in a pair of public hearings next month.
Under the proposed budget, expenditures will rise $1.6 million,
3.4 percent over the estimated year-end costs in the current plan.
Much of the increase is tied to pay raises, new employees,
a new storefront library branch and new street name signs.
McDaniel budgeted $638,650 for raises. Firefighters and police
officers will get 4 percent pay hikes. Other employees will get
raises up to 5 percent based on their performance.
The budget also includes seven new hires: a full-time technology
liaison, a night zookeeper, three librarians, a building permit
specialist and an animal shelter attendant. Their salaries will
cost an extra $146,992.
The library branch, scheduled to open in January, will cost
$223,920.
The budget earmarks another $150,000, a four-fold increase
over previous years, to replace faded street name signs and outdated
signal heads. The money will fund the first of a three-year, $510,000
plan.
The city will collect about $1 million more in taxes in the
coming year, including approximately $570,000 more in property
taxes and $390,000 in sales taxes.
The administration had proposed expanding its police impound
to a 24-hour operation to combat a rash of vandalism that damaged
more than 100 cars at a cost of $30,000. The operation was expected
to generate revenue above its costs.
The proposal involved storing abandoned cars and prisoners'
vehicles, not the more lucrative business of towing. Still, wrecker
owners complained the idea encroached on private enterprise.
"We've got our livelihood tied to this," one owner
told the council at Friday's budget workshop. "We depend
on these cars."
Another added, "Why should the taxpayers go to the expense
of building up the impound? Maybe the city should turn it over
to private servers and be out of the business totally."
Currently, the city contracts with three wreckers to tow prisoners'
cars and rotates abandonment tows among the city's 17 wrecker
services.
"I didn't realize we were stirring up a hornet's nest
here," McDaniel said. "We thought we had the answer.
Obviously, it was not the right answer."
Other proposals remain intact.
-- The Crime Victim Crisis Center, a YMCA juvenile justice
program and the Medical Care Mission got the $72,250 in combined
aid they requested.
Councilman Rob Beckham had sought to fund the programs from
Community Development Block Grants. But federal regulations prohibit
replacing local funds with block grants unless a municipality
suffers a loss of revenue beyond its control, city staff reported.
-- The Abilene Cultural Affairs Council, the Taylor County
Expo Center and the Abilene Regional Council on Alcoholism and
Drug Abuse remain "high priorities" for surplus funds
at the end of the current fiscal year.
McDaniel is "hopeful" the city will have extra money
to aid the programs.
-- Though the council is on the verge of asking voters to raise
their taxes to build a $10.5 million library, its members claimed
the pending bond issue didn't sway budget decisions.
"You always could find things you would like to add,"
Councilwoman Kay Alexander said, "but I don't feel there's
anything we really neglected. It's a good, sound budget."
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story
to A Friend:
Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
