McComb officials are eying an increase in water bills to shore up a projected shortfall in the city’s utility fund of $245,551.
City Administrator Quordiniah Lockley said during Monday’s budget work session that the utility fund’s debt is the culprit of the shortfall, largely due to an additional $2.5 million in expenses not present in last year’s budget.
Payments on the city’s new wastewater treatment facility are projected for about $2.06 million. The city also begins a 10-year payment plan with Siemens Public on a $4.5 million project to install 6,900 automated water meters. The project will cost the city nearly $500,000 this year.
Lockley and McComb Public Works Director Ronnie Lindsey will attempt to hammer out an adequate rate increase.
Meanwhile, projections for McComb’s general fund budget indicated a sales tax revenue increase from figures presented two weeks ago.
The new projected general fund budget receives a bump from about $9.9 million to $10.08 million.
And city officials note that the millage rate is not expected to rise.
However, that good news is joined by some bad. The 2011-12 budget is still projected to have a shortfall of about $24,000, which is an improvement over the $214,000 shortfall initially projected two weeks ago.
“This has been a hard budget,” Lockley said. “These projections are close to where we may be for this coming year.”
He told board members that department heads made a number of deep cuts to drop the projected shortfall. Cuts by department include $20,000 for recreation, $18,000 for zoning, $43,000 for fire, $30,000 for police and $46,000 for public works.
“Last year, we had department heads cut 5 percent from their budgets,” Lockley said. “This was a bare-bones budget. Now we’re down into the marrow.”
The cuts, Lockley said, were the by-product of his requesting each department head to cut $45,000 from their budgets. Selectmen Ted Tullos and Michael Cameron disagreed with the approach and asked Lockley why he didn’t ask them to make percentage reductions.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Tullos said. “That’s not even.”
Cameron added, “In my mind, that’s wasting department heads’ time.”
Lockley said he used the figure as a jumping-off point and reiterated the importance of a balanced budget.
“I understand that it hurts, but we have to balance this budget,” Lockley said. “This board cannot adopt an unbalanced budget.”
Selectman Tammy Witherspoon did not attend the meeting.
