McCaysville City Council members did not discuss the FY 2021 projected budget when they gave their unanimous approval to it Tuesday, August 11.
The only comment came later during council comments when Councilwoman Gilita Carter said, “We are not in any way ... trying to defund our police department. We’re just trying to be fair all the way around.”
She continued to target the expense increases in the department over the last several years.
A review of the projected department expenses for 2021 shows only the Police Department and Street Department with lower figures than the previous year.
For the purpose of comparing expenses between 2020 and 2021, The News Observer subtracted $369,637.90 from the City Park budget. That amount represented the money the city was forced to pay because of incorrectly administering the OneGeorgia grant, and was paid out of city reserves. Therefore, it could not be considered a reduced operating expense between the two years.
The expense changes, from 2020 to 2021, by department show an overall increase of $182,201.37. A by-department breakdown shows:
•Administration up $6,868.70;
•Police down $193,946.82;
•Streets down $80,240.98;
•City Park up $25,254.21;
•Municipal Court up $484.25;
•Sewer, collection and distribution, up $133,562.31;
•Water Plant up $16,308.32; and,
•Water Distribution up $273,911.38.
Some items included in individual department budgets give an indication for the overall increase. These include:
•Police: Salaries and overtime have been reduced by $228,068.38. This was previously cited by the council as coming from the layoff of two-full time officers and reducing the force to one officer per shift.
•Streets: A retirement was cited during the meeting as the big change. Salaries, overtime, insurance and retirement reductions reduced the expenses $69,630.19.
•City Park: The recalculated 2020 actual expense, without the OneGeorgia grant expense, produced an operating total of $32,695.79 in 2020. Compared to the 2021 projection of $57,950, which resulted in the $25,254.21 budget increase. Most of that increase came from $15,000 planned for land improvement, $2,500 for fixtures, and $4,735.90 for contract labor.
•Sewer Collection and Disposal: Increases came in repairs and maintenance, $30,642.08; other purchased services, $67,257.23; capital outlay, $20,000; and, infrastructure, $10,000.
•Water Treatment Plant: equipment expense, combining large and small, accounted for the largest increase at $11,067.60 and a new, $1,000, outlay was set aside for furniture and fixtures.
•Water distrbution saw large increases in capital outlay, $50,000; machinery, $10,000; vehicles, $46,000; equipment, $47,490; and, debt issuance costs, $24,000.
In addition, the city is projecting to spend $320,250 from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax account. This compared to $318,088.11 spent in 2020.
Citizens are invited to comment on the budget at a public hearing concerning the budget scheduled for Wednesday, September 2, at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
The mayor and council intend to adopt the budget at their regular meeting September 8.