Eureka Springs drops plan for increased pay cut

EUREKA SPRINGS — City employees won’t see their pay cut by 6% as proposed in a recent City Council meeting, at least not for now.

After the numbers were crunched, the pay cuts just wouldn’t have saved the city much money, said Mayor Robert “Butch” Berry.

With tourism down because of the pandemic, Berry cut 22% from the city’s budget and told the City

Council more cuts might be necessary. They asked him to cut 35% from the budget, but Berry said it can’t be done without some serious pay cuts.

At a meeting May 25, Alderman Terry McClung asked Berry and Lonnie

Clark, the city’s finance director, to rework the proposed budget with a 6% cut for all city employees.

The council saw the revised budget at a meeting Monday.

“It amounted to not enough to make a dent in the budget,” said Berry. “We weren’t able to make the 35% cut. They ultimately decided they’re going to leave everything like it is.”

Berry said that means keeping the 22% cut he already made. Berry said that cut involves not filling some vacant positions, but nobody would have to take a pay cut.

Eureka Springs’ budget for 2020 was $10,803,153, said Kim Stryker, the mayor’s assistant. The city collects 2% in general sales taxes. Those taxes brought in $2,316,963 last year.

The city’s sales tax revenue for March dropped 18.3% when compared with March 2019. April numbers should be available around June 20. There’s a twomonth lag between the time the sales taxes are collected in Eureka Springs and when the state provides the city with money from those taxes.

Pandemic-related closings and travel restrictions that significantly affect the tourism industry were in place for part of March and all of April.

In recent weeks, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has been opening the state’s economy.

Berry said the economy appears to be on the upswing in Eureka Springs.