Millage rate remains to be determined by Fayetteville City Council

Your lead may be misleading, Skip.
I think the council will vote for an increase if they can't cut enough fat out of the budget to balance it and provide raises. Coody has had plenty of time to work with the staff of all departments to identify that fat. Will he present a balanced budget this afternoon to the special budget meeting? I doubt it. I hope he surprises me.
The council will have to bring in a lot of department heads and demand specifics. The budget hasn't yet been made public, even to the council, according to councilmember Shirley Lucas.
Aubrey



The Morning News

Local News for Northwest Arkansas


Millage Rate Still Not Set, Talks Continue

By Skip Descant
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- Initial talks around the city budget do not appear to be leaning toward a tax increase for the 2009 Fayetteville city budget.

"If you look at the increases that the residents have had in water and sewer and the total economy, all of that needs to be factored in when you're thinking about this," said Bobby Ferrell, a member of the Fayetteville City Council during Tuesday night's meeting.

"Now, is not a good time to raise taxes," said Adella Gray, a Fayetteville City Council member.

But council members continued to study what cost-of-living raises for the city's workers would cost the city.

If the city granted a cost-of-living raise for this year and made up for the lack of a raise last year, the increase would be 7.85 percent, said Paul Becker, the city's finance director. This increase translates to about $2.1 million, or a 1.8-mill increase in the budget. A 1-mill increase would raise the annual property taxes on the average $150,000 home in Fayetteville by about $30 (PER MONTH), added Becker. If the city went with only a 4-percent cost of living raise, the budget adjustment would be $1.1 million.

The aldermen were slow to encourage this route, but seemed to lean toward exploring other issues during Fayetteville's budget meeting at 4:30 p.m. today.

"I have a struggle with raising taxes when we have $7.9 million reserved in a shop fund," said council member Shirley Lucas, referring to one of the city's enterprise funds.

In truthfulness, said Becker, the shop fund has $5.7 million.

"Oh, 5.7 now," quipped Lucas.

"I better hurry, or it'll be gone," she added.

"I asked him and he looked it up for me, and we just don't have all of the information that they have," said Lucas later, and who noted she did not believe Becker was trying to mislead her.

And, in the current economic climate, not everyone believed the discussion should have been around raises.

"There are a whole lot of us, including me, that are not going to get COLAs," said Steve Frankernberger, a resident. "When times are bad we need to take care of each other."

The proposed 2009 budget offered by the mayor's office dips into reserve funds by $535,000. Increases next year must cover increases in fuel, city contracts and merit pay raises, Becker said.

The $535,000 could be covered with an increase in property taxes by about a half-mill, said Becker, who noted this would amount to about $15 a year (or month?) on the average home.