The McCaysville City Council discussed a revenue shortfall of $439,225.19 during a work session Thursday, May 28.
“I decreased the administrative budget, as much as I could decrease it, from $234,259 to $202,439,” City Clerk Nancy Godfrey said. “We haven’t had to pay out as many professional fees in court this year, so I was able to drop that one down to $8,355. The police department, Michael (Earley, police chief) has indicated was going to probably be $30,000 over. I projected a little higher than that based on everything that goes along with that. It’s not just payroll. It’s retirement, it’s social security matching and all of that. So, his is showing an increase to $627,000.
“The street department has also had to increase to $265,000 because there was some more spending in the street department. The city park, of course, is the bulk of that $350,000. I’m showing an increase to $443,887.90. I don’t really expect the expenditures to reach that figure. … So it’s possible that can be reduced a little bit.”
The original current projected revenue was listed at $1,455,526. She amended that figure to $1,107,456.71 due to changes in revenue. The changes in revenue are based on the city not receiving the $350,000 OneGeorgia grant funds, and the addition of an LMIG grant for $1,930.71 that the city has received. The city had also originally budgeted $87,161 from reserves in revenue.
“At any rate, based on that, there will be a revenue shortfall of $439,225.19, and you add that back to the original pull from reserves $87,161, and that’s a total we’ll have to show from reserves of $526,356.19,” Godfrey said. “Needless to say, most of that has already been spent, so we’re just having to balance the budget.”
The council looked ahead to the 2020-2021 Projected Budget, and council member Gilita Carter read an email from Godfrey detailing the financial situation with a copy of the recent financial statement, which, in part, read, “This has not been a good fiscal year, and with the fact being that it’s probably going to get worse.”
Carter urged the rest of the council and city departments to seriously take a look at potential ways to save money in the current economic climate.
“What it amounts to is everyone really needs to take this very, very seriously,” she said. “Cut as much as you can. … We’re in such unprecedented times, and we don’t know what’s going to happen, or what the income is gonna be.
“Our only other choice, if we get to a certain point, is we’re gonna have to go up on water bills, and bills and raise taxes, and we don’t want to have to do that, because everybody is going to be affected by what is going on.”
The council also discussed several potential modifications to the alcohol ordinance after receiving requests from local business owners.
The potential modifications include changes in discount days and happy hours, last call extension on holidays, package sales, advertising and residency requirements for permits.
While no action was taken due to it being a work session meeting, City Attorney Cortney Stuart will look into the potential amendments and present the information to the council at a later meeting.
The council discussed the continuation of waived online convenience fees, and starting water cut-offs after June 20.
They also briefly discussed a potential spending resolution, the potential sale of a spring, the city’s CARES Act application and the city park.
The council will meet again Tuesday, June 9.