City $875K over in expenses
Officials talk budget cuts, employees partially paying for insurance
It’s our responsibility to pass a balanced budget, the statute says we have to balance the budget. We need to look at every time and lets make a decison. We have some hard choices
to make.”
—Mayor Wayne Smith
The Texarkana, Ark., city budget for 2014 has $875,000 more in expenses than revenues and city department heads have been asked to cut 4 percent from their respective budgets.
In addition to the 4 percent departmental budget cuts, other cost-cutting ideas were discussed Thursday.
Those include city employees being asked to pay 1 to 1.5 percent of their base salary for their health insurance, taking away cell phones and reducing car allowances of employees.
“It is going to kill morale and we are going to lose our best employees,” said Texarkana, Ark., Public Works Director Paul Hackleman. “The ones who stay are going to be disgruntled.”
Hackleman was one of several city employees who made comments to the Texarkana, Ark., Board of Directors Thursday night following a budget workshop where directors were told the general fund budget draft presented shows expenditures to exceed revenues by $875,000 in 2014.
Finance Director Jessica Hyman said for 2014, approximately 84 percent of general fund expenditures are attributed to the public safety services provided by the city.
A significant part of the deficit is the increased cost of nearly $400,000 to operate the Bi-State Justice Building. The increase is largely due to the increased cost to house inmates.
The police department is researching alternative methods of housing inmates at a lower cost, but no immediate solution is available at this time.
Hyman did not get a chance to finish her PowerPoint presentation to the board before discussion among the board members about budget concerns took over the duration of the meeting.
Police Chief Bob Harrison told the directors that it would be foolish to consider taking away cell phones for city employees such as police detectives who need to be contacted immediately when serious crimes occur. He said it is imperative in homicide investigations for a detective to be reached immediately so crucial evidence can be collected.
Harrison recalled being a detective for the city in the 1980s and not having a pager because the city did not provide him one. He said he was at the scene in College Hill where someone had killed someone with a skillet.
It took three hours before anyone else could be reached to help him.
He said he would not be put in that situation again and does not expect his employees to be either.
“There were two murderers loose, so it was a matter of public safety,” Harrison said after the meeting. “It was just me and patrolmen and they were not experienced in crime scenes. I needed investigators. If we don’t provide city cell phones, employees will not be required to answer the phone.”
Harrison said he would agree to make concessions with the board to not fill the two open police positions within the department and to take a4 percent cut in his budget-something all city department heads have been asked to do because of the city’s financial challenges.
All departments have been asked to cut expenditures by a total of $422,000. He also said he would be willing to give up some of the money usually provided to his department by the U.S. Marshals office. But that is where he said the cuts need to stop.
“We had two homicides in the last two weeks,” Harrison said. “I gave up two people and I need those people. There is a lot of crime in this city.”
Fire Chief Bob Honea said he agreed with Harrison about the importance of some city employees--including key fire officials-having a city cell phone for emergency situations.
“I fully agree with Chief Harrison about the cell phones,” Honea said. “I have three battalion chiefs who pass one cell phone to another from one day to the next. I do think communication is critical.”
Mayor Wayne Smith said he wanted to review the budget line item by line item. He said he thought the board doing anything less would be “shirking their duties.”
“It’s our responsibility to pass a balanced budget, the statue says we have to balance the budget,” Smith said. “We need to look at every time and let’s make a decision. We have some hard choices to make.”
No announcement was made Thursday about the date for the next budget workshop. By law, the board must adopt a budget by February.