In the midst of its fifth two-year budget, Anderson city administrators took a long, hard look at their projected revenues and expenses for the 2008-2009 fiscal year that begins July 1. “The proposed budget is balanced, but not without some sacrifices,” noted Dana Shigley, executive director of the Anderson Redevelopment Agency and assistant city manager. Shigley is the “goto” person when it comes to understanding the details of city financing. By using a two-year budget process, the city saves substantially in time and staff resources in the even numbered years such as this one that does not require a full budget, City Manager Scott Morgan explained to Mayor Butch Schaefer and three other members of the Anderson City Council who attended an hour-long workshop prior to the May 6 council meeting. Council member Melissa Hunt did not attend the workshop session. “For us, in our size organization, this productivity (savings) is meaningful. The time we would have otherwise spent on budget

development this past spring has instead been devoted towards making progress on delivering the 2007-2009 priority projects and programs that the council adopted last June,” Morgan noted.

Based on anticipated revenues from a variety of sources, Morgan and Shigley are proposing a spending plan of just under $16.5 million in 2008-09, which represents a 6.8 percent or nearly $1.2 million drop from the $17,681.771 that the city council budgeted in 2007-08.

Those total revenues, however, include substantial amounts raised by such sources as the water and wastewater funds, grants, investments and other fee generating programs that the council cannot actually spend on anything but designated uses. That leaves the council with general fund revenues of just $5,532,000 or 33.6 percent of the actual revenues received by the city, Morgan noted.

That amount is down from last year by $176,800 or a 3.3 percent drop.

All in all, in order to balance the city’s planned and proposed expenditures against these anticipated revenues, city administrators are recommending not filling a total of eight positions, some of which are currently vacant. The remaining two or three are anticipated to be vacated when higher retirement benefits kick into play on July 3, Morgan said.

The four currently vacant positions include a building official, two police officers and one parks maintenance worker. The anticipated vacancies resulting from retirements include the city’s senior building inspector an one police dispatcher, as well as a secretary in the Parks and Recreation department.

Only one employee – the city’s assistant planner – is recommended for layoff, and that is due primarily to the lack of planning documents directly resulting from the dramatic drop in residential construction that is related in large part to the sub-prime lending problem that has beset the nation’s financial institutions and tightened credit, Morgan noted.

“These reduced appropriations are required as a result of a combination of needing to eliminate our reliance on drawing upon our reserves to balance the budget, and on worsening economic conditions that have arisen since the (two-year) budget was originally adopted in July of 2007.

“After these reductions in staffing, the remaining planning and building departments staffing will consist of five planning commissioners, the planning director, a building inspector whose salary is partially grant-funded for code enforcement, and a part-time secretary that the department shares with the public works department,” Morgan said.

In the police department, the 2008-2009 appropriations include funding for 18 sworn officers which includes the police chief, a captain, 12 officers and four dispatchers. It also provides support personnel including a division manager, a lead dispatcher, a community services officer, an animal control officer, and two full-time and one part-time public safety records clerks.

The full council is expected to act on these budget recommendations in June, Mayor Schaefer advised.