Members of the Albany City Council discovered Monday that the city finances permitted by using the Budget Committee and headed to the council contained a six-discern mistake: The town is, without a doubt, a predicted $500,000 more than officers formerly had a notion.
City Finance Director Jeanne Yeager stated during a council work consultation that the mistake was changed after a Budget Committee member requested a query at a previous assembly.
“At the final Budget Committee assembly, one of the board members said our transfers in weren’t equaling our transfers out,” she stated. In addressing that, we found we sincerely had accomplished one-year budgets instead of one-year price ranges. We covered the end fund stability twice, making it appear like we had more money to allocate than we did.”
The predicted $500,000 shortfall is cut from the approximate $1.7 million shortfalls going through the Albany Police Department. In the primary year of the budget, the department is anticipated to have a gap of $518,000; in the second 12 months, it is expected to have $1.2 million. Those deficits were crammed inside the finances with the aid of freezing one lieutenant function every 12 months and a total of 5 officer positions over the years, disbanding the branch’s avenue crimes and visitors gadgets.
Yeager, who noted the error might also have been a software program error, stated the new shortfall of approximately $500,000 could be stuffed from the city’s contingency fund, which currently has $2.Fifty-five million.
“It’s what contingency is for,” she said. We’re not taking any additional cash away from the departments. Nobody likes to make a mistake, but we’re glad we caught it before it went to the council.”
After spending nearly an hour discussing the opportunity to explore change revenue assets, Yeager informed the council of the mistake.
Mayor Sharon Konopa initiated the communique, stating that the city had to sit up for destiny budgets and that property taxes might no longer maintain the town’s offerings.
“I don’t like us happening the route folks looking at cuts,” she said. “I suppose we want to maintain our degree of provider. This year, we’re squeaking with the aid of.”
Konopa recommended implementing a software fee, raising planning costs, or increasing franchise costs. Those suggestions made Councilor Rich Kellum’s list of money-saving ideas, which included transferring one of the libraries into a virtual library, combining the parks and library departments, closing Maple Lawn preschool, and increasing the cost of Fire Med. This program permits residents to pay $65 a year for cozy ambulance offerings instead of the higher prices associated with their medical insurance.
Kellum also said the town must recall changing the Central Albany Revitalization Area — the metropolis’s city renewal district — to have extra cash the section collects to return to the municipality. Property values inside the community are frozen, and as property fees increase over the years, the distinction between the frozen fee and the brand-new cost is going to the community, no longer the town.
Kellum also said he wanted to ask the electorate whether to put a utility fee into effect.
Councilor Bill Coburn agreed with Kellum and introduced the requirement that any charge the city proposes must be provided to the electorate with a specific cause and funding for the Police Department or the library.
“We can’t have the funds for ourselves,” he said. “We have too large a finances, and it expenses too much. I’m pissed off that the first concept is to raise taxes.”
