Fort Oglethorpe city council presents 2015 budget

It’s budget time again for the city of Fort Oglethorpe.

City council members, at their Oct. 13 meeting, heard the first of three readings for the proposed 2015 budget. The budget year begins Jan. 1.

The 2015 budget includes a three-percent raise for employee raise and a 35-percent hike in health insurance costs.

The city will pay the bulk of the health insurance hike. Employees pay about 15 percent of their health insurance coverage and the city covers the remainder. A city employee with family coverage can expect an increase of $45, while the city’s portion will increase to about $250 per employee.

Health insurance premiums paid for by the city in 2015 will be about $1.4 million, an increase of more than $300,000.

Since the city isn’t increasing its property tax rate to bring in more revenue to cover the health insurance hike, it will have to be paid from the city reserves, according to finance director Pam Travillian. However, it looks as though the reserves will remain untouched from this year to next as the budget surplus from 2014 will roughly cover the insurance payments for next year, essentially rolling over into next year’s budget, Travillian explained.

With those additions included, the 2015 budget comes to a proposed $13,808,551.

The preparation for next year’s budget means coming close to the current one. In order to account for the health insurance premium increase of 35 percent from August to December, unused money from almost every department was reallocated to make up for the budget deficiency.

The 2014 budget revision summery lists total expenses and total revenues each as $692,218. New income includes $100,000 from the city reserves to pay for the intersection and traffic light on Battlefield Parkway.

The city has already paid $250,000 toward the joint project with Catoosa County Development Authority. The original amount for the intersection improvement was $500,000 split between the city and county. Developer Larry Armour with Armour Commercial Real Estate proposed an increase of $200,000 for the project, which was approved in early 2014.

Also listed as income in the budget amendment was an insurance payment for the pavilion that burned down at GilbertStephenson Park. The total insurance payout was $75,669. This figure was less than costs to rebuild the structure, which came to an estimated $103,760. The sale of property and a rebate from commercial insurance helped to make up the difference to rebuild the pavilion as well as cover other expenses.

The worker’s compensation rebate was slightly over $10,000 and salvage sales and property sales came to an estimated $15,000. These figures were counted as income in the budget amendment.

The budget amendment ordinance for the current year and the 2015 budget ordinance were scheduled to have a public hearing on the two ordinances along with the second readings at the regular meeting of the Fort Oglethorpe city council Oct. 27. The tentative schedule for final adoption of the budget will be at the meeting Nov. 10.