“We had fallen a little bit behind on some of our street and road projects,” Jonathan Hudson, the city’s finance director, said. “With the passage of the new levy, we’re making an increased effort to try to catch back up on those.”
Voters approved Issue 3, which raised the Centerville earned income tax by 0.5 percent to 2.25 percent.
The city approved an emergency ordinance for the 2017 budget in December and will have a permanent budget presentation at the next public meeting on Jan. 23.
If council approves the permanent ordinance next month, it will take 30 days for it to take the place of the emergency ordinance, according to city manager Greg Horn.
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“Appropriations are done by emergency,” he said. “That way, Jan. 1, we can start spending. We’re able to issue payroll and pay bills.”
The emergency expenditures that were approved by council aren’t expected to change once they’re presented next month.
During the 2017 budget presentation, council will also review the city’s 2016 expenditures, which include $7.1 million devoted to police, $2.6 million on street construction and maintenance and $1.3 million in waste collection.
Centerville in December also approved a $321,000 increase to 2016 appropriations, a step Horn called necessary and said ensured the city didn’t exceed any budgeted line items. The general fund increased $225,000, including $81,000 in police grants used to upgrade police department radios.
“Even though we had $321,000 of amended appropriations or adjustments, that’s less than one percent of our budget, and we still anticipate that our overall expenditures will be about three to four percent below budget,” Horn said. “We’ve got to make sure that in all of the major categories we don’t exceed what we have listed.”
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