Council mulls budget draft

BELLA VISTA — The City Council combed through the latest draft of the 2021 budget during a Monda special work session.

The current budget projects $16,856,912 in total revenue, a 5% increase over last year’s prediction, as well as $16,192,849 in operating expenditures and $2,758,787 in capital expenditures, in total using $2,094,724 of reserve funds.

Finance director Cary Elsten said the 5% increase in revenue is a conservative estimate.

On the expense side, she said, the city saw significant increases for employee benefits, including medical, dental and workman’s comp.

Councilmember Doug Fowler said that, especially after this year, it could be extremely difficult to make accurate projections.

The city is ahead of budget this year, but that’s largely because of a recently-approved sales tax for online sales.

With more people staying home, online sales have grown drastically, but it’s hard to say if that trend will continue if and when things return to normal, he explained.

“If this covid gets past us next year … people may return some to brick and mortar and the online sales may not be as strong,” he said.

Mayor Peter Christie strongly encouraged council members to reach out to department heads, Elsten and other city staff with any thoughts or questions they have after looking over the proposed budget.

“We’ll get a chance to talk about it again at the work session,” he said.