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Budget passes council muster |
By Gary Allen
& Laurent Bonczijk, Newberg Graphic news staff
E-mail at
thegraphic@eaglenewspapers.com
|
The city of Newberg’s
often contentious, and sometimes confusing, process to adopt a
budget came to a close Thursday evening with an admonition: Next
year things will be different.
“I think we haven’t given the budget a fair shake this year,” said
Councilor Robert Soppe at a special Thursday meeting of the Newberg
City Council.
Soppe said that, although city officials knew in February that the
$72.64 million budget would likely be short more than $200,000, that
information wasn’t communicated to the council and the budget
committee until much later.
As a result, both bodies were forced to scramble to adjust the
budget for an expected shortfall. That shortfall was lessened when
it was discovered in mid-June that the city would receive an
additional $127,847 in property tax revenues.
Soppe also said the hurried process wasn’t necessary as the city
could have adopted a temporary budget to meet the state’s June 30
deadline, then worked out a final budget later.
“We were put in a corner of deadlines that didn’t have to be
there,” he said, adding that he voted against the budget at the
council and budget committee levels because the city continues to
spend beyond what it earns in revenues.
Councilor Bart Rierson, who voted in favor of passing the budget,
said the process needed to be refined department by department. He
added that he hoped those departments that experienced cuts this
year could be refinanced next year.
Councilor Jeff Palmer admonished the city to raise revenues rather
than make cuts and “we’ll have a better start on next year’s
budget.”
Mayor Bob Andrews said he was considering forming a council
subcommittee that would return with policies to address next year’s
budget more efficiently “so staff (and the council) has some
guidance before the fact, not after the fact.”
The city council was acting on the recommendation of the budget
committee to reinstate nearly $128,000 of the proposed $205,000 in
cuts.
The council sent the budget back to committee June 18 in light of
the additional $128,000 in property tax receipts, and to allow
citizen members on the committee to voice their opinion on the
matter.
The committee recommended reinstating funding for the following
items: $30,000 for upgrades to the telephone system, $18,000 toward
the visitor’s center of the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce,
$18,000 for a code enforcement officer, $11,787 for membership in
the League of Oregon cities, $8,000 to pay for a half-time position
in the finance department, $7,691 for membership in the
Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments, $6,000 for fireworks
at the Old Fashioned Festival.
The city also reinstated $5,000 for the library, $4,500 for fire
safety equipment, $3,000 for the Austrian visit, $2,500 for patrol
overtime in the police department, $2,000 for city council meals,
$1,100 for city and county dinners, $700 for the mayor’s conference,
$299 for membership in the Chamber of Commerce, $7,500 for the
planning department to contract work, and a deposit of $1,640 in the
city’s contingency fund.
The budget committee’s 7-5 vote took place after nearly two hours
of discussion. The no votes were cast by Councilors Robert Soppe,
Roger Currier and Bart Rierson, joined by citizen members Lon Wall
and Thomas Barnes.
Seventy-eight percent of the general fund budget is dedicated to
fund public safety services such as police and fire. This percentage
has been increasing over the years because income from property
taxes hasn’t kept pace with “what it costs to operate public
safety,” Bennett said.
Money for the general fund comes primarily from property taxes,
other taxes levied by the city, and licenses and fees. There was a
shortfall in this year’s general fund, Bennett said, because
revenues from application fees for new developments were $500,000 to
$600,000 less than expected. |
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From
June 30, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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