Commission approves budget for 2018
Cedartown’s budget will be tight for the coming year, but city officials expect to still add money to the surplus that has been growing for the past few years.
With 2017 coming to a close, Cedartown Commissioners approved the city’s bud- get ahead of the start of the new year, with the final figures tallied at $7,787,055 in overall revenue and $7,775,365 in expenses, allowing for the fund balance to grow by another $ 12,000 for the year.
Breaking down expenses for the year, the city is still spending the most on police and firefighters, with the Cedartown Police Department expected to cost $2,447,145 to operate and the Fire Department $1,342,468.
The City’s administrative costs will sit at $1,383,450, and includes all the city’s group health insurance coverage for the year.
City Manager Bill Fann explained that in the past, the departments have split up their health insurance costs and kept them separate from each other, but in order to make the accounting easier in the future they have been combined under the city’s administrative cost structure.
“That’s why we’ve seen a decreases in the fire and police department budgets this year, mainly,” Fann said.
He said health insurance costs went up by 20 percent this year for the city, but that it was much better than the 53 percent initial bid the city received for coverage.
“Everyone is dealing with these issues, and not just in government ei- ther,” Fann said. “It’s a problem in business too. It’s tough.”
One solution the city is looking at in the future is using Primary Healthcare to allow employees and their families to use services at their clinic free of charge in hopes to decrease claim costs in the future.