Wednesday, August 13, 2003
|
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 |
PTC considers $26m budgetBy J. FRANK
LYNCH
Thank goodness for Target. Peachtree City officials gave tentative agreement to a proposed $26 million budget for FY04 on Monday, a decision that likely wouldn't have been made so easily had word not leaked out earlier in the evening that the discount retailer was the leading tenant planned for a 264,000-square foot addition to Kedron Village. Though the project won't get started until next spring, and will take more than a year to complete, it will give a boost to sagging city revenues through impact fees, construction expenses and the like. And when finished, the center will bring an untold number of jobs, as well as sales tax revenue to the county, said Mayor Steve Brown. The city is suffering from lagging revenues and rising expenses, and faces its leanest year fiscally in history. There will be little pork to offer in 2004, and as designed the budgets for 2005 and 2006 will have to pick up the slack with full 1 mill tax increases both years, finally leveling off in 1997. But City Manager Bernard McMullen and Financial Services Director Paul Salvatore think a budget based on a slight millage increase of 0.58 mills this year, coupled with some deep and creative cuts across all city departments, will work, as long as it's padded out with increased revenues from a proposed hike in city court fines and other fees. That idea was first proposed by Councilman Dan Tennant as part of a budget alternate last week; McMullen liked the prospects and did some homework over the weekend. While some fines for traffic violations are set by the state, many others, such as driving without proof of insurance or littering, can be adjusted locally. By doubling in some cases the current fines, the city could see a significant jump in income in a short period of time. But Peachtree City Municipal Judge Mitch Powell has yet to weigh in officially on the matter, and it needs his approval. Unofficially, city staffers say he isn't keen on the idea. Neither is Police Chief James Murray, who is fully understanding of the city's financial straits but has no desire to see the police staff viewed by the public as a "revenue generator." "We are here to protect and to serve, not raise funds for the city," Murray said. "If you create that kind of impression, you are putting my officers in an uncomfortable situation." Murray says he has no idea what the city charges for routine traffic violations, and doesn't want to know. "That's none of our business," he insisted. Even with agreement apparently near, Councilman Tennant, who is running for reelection this year, proposed an across the board 5 percent cut in city staffing Monday, starting with managers. He also suggested that the COLA increase only go to employees of the city's emergency services division who made up most of the audience for the hearing. Fellow council members generally panned Tennant's ideas as unnecessary and against the will of the city's residents. "This would work downtown (in Atlanta), but we provide services here, and that's what makes this city the great place it is to live," said Steve Rapson. "Look, the people who live here are spoiled, and they don't mind paying to be spoiled," said Annie McMenamin, justifying a slight tax increase. "When somebody calls me wanting their cart path fixed, they don't mean next week, next month or six months from now, they mean, 'I'm about to go out on my cart path, and I expect to see somebody back there working on it.'" Said Councilman Murray Weed, "We all moved here from other places because of the things that this city has to offer, the streets are clean, our homes are safe, the grass gets cut and the flowers are planted," he said. "As long as people are willing to pay for that, I'm not going to cut anybody." Cuts will come from all over: $30,000 by eliminating the mailing of the Update newsletter, posting it online instead; $50,000 by cutting the Council Contingency Fund to $100,000; $10,000 by slicing the Police Reward Fund to $13,000. And if the gamble involving fees and fines doesn't pay off, McMullen has identified another host of capital "delays" that could ease the pain, though as a last resort. Among them: Delaying the controversial Gateway Bridge project over Ga. Highway 54 at Wynnmeade Parkway, at a savings of $120,000. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Aug. 21, and formal council approval is expected on Sept. 4.
|
||