Council to begin budget hearings

Lorain City Council will meet this week to work out the city’s 2019 municipal budget.

The Finance and Claims Committee, with all of Council, will begin budget hearings at 6 p.m. Dec. 13 at City Hall, 200 W. Erie Ave.

Council’s budget worksheet is a 127-page spreadsheet with figures submitted by the city department heads and compiled by Auditor Karen Shawver and Mayor Chase Ritenauer.

With 2018 drawing to a close, Ritenauer has said he hopes Council will consider and approve the budget by year’s end.

On Dec. 10, Councilman-at-Large Joe Koziura told those attending the Finance and Claims Committee meeting to study up on the figures and be prepared with ideas and questions for the Dec. 13 meeting.

Council will not pass the budget at that meeting, but likely will at another meeting next week, Koziura said.

The budget hearings are open to the public.

The draft budget lists general fund revenues projected to be about $29.68 million.

Income tax expected to be more than $20 million is the city’s single largest source of revenue, according to the draft budget.

General fund expenses are projected at about $29.62 million, leaving a carryover of $65,849, according to the draft budget.

The key is that the city officials are budgeting revenue to be flat; there will be some expense increases, including employee raises that will affect costs, Ritenauer said.

The general fund pays for a number of services on the streets of Lorain and in City Hall.

Among the general fund expenses:

• Police, $11.21 million

• Fire, $6.9 million

• Safety-service director, $2.15 million

• Lorain Municipal Clerk of Court, $1.03 million

• Building inspection, $1.01 million

• Law director, $1 million

• Information technology, $906,197

• Lorain Municipal Court judges, $810,707

• Auditor, $777,845

• Treasurer, $683,042

• Parks and recreation, $535,316

• Cemetery, $211,223

• Clerk of Council, $177,605

• City Council, $175,951

• Civil Service Commission, $105,624

Other city departments have designated funding sources for certain services.

The Street Department is projected to have revenues of about $4.96 million, coming largely from state gasoline taxes, motor vehicle license fees and Lorain’s street repair levy.

Expenses are forecasted to be about $5.32 million,

The Building, Housing and Planning Department is projected to get about $3.61 million in revenues, largely coming from federal Community Development Block Grants.

Expenses from that are budgeted at about $2.75 million.

For the city Water Department, revenues are projected at about $19.78 million, with much of that, about $17.5 million, coming from water sales to customers.

Water expenses are budgeted at about $16.85 million, creating a budget surplus of about $2.93 million.

The Sewer Department is expected to have revenues of about $19.41 million, mostly coming from sewage treatment bills estimated to bring in $16.4 million.

But expenses are budgeted at $22.82 million, leaving a deficit of more than $3.4 million for that department.

For the end of 2018, it appears the city will roll over a surplus once the final counts are in for revenues and expenses.

That will be the second year in a row to do so, Ritenauer said.