The Centralia Finance Committee held their meeting regarding budget concerns Monday evening. The committee made recommendations to City Manager Dan Ramey in regards to the city's budget deficit. The deficit has grown from $750,000 in 2006 to $11 million by the end of 2010, with problems particularly in the general fund. The committee says for the rest of this year, there's not going to be much opportunity for personnel cuts and freeze raises. Options include eliminating expenses that are unnecessary to help manage the cash flow better, and limit spending. The committee states the city should be spending about 63-percent of the city budget by this time of year. At this time, the city has spent 69-percent of the budget so far this year. Ramey announced union contracts negotiations have begun with the city, which will affect the budget in the upcoming year. Councilman David Sauer gave a recommendation to close one of thetwo fire stationsin Centralia. He states the population has decreased from 18,000 to 13,000, raising the taxes as well. He says with the city's size, they don't need two fire stations. "We can't be all things to all people. I would love to have the best fire department in the nation here, but we're a poor community; we have a poor tax base. If we're going to have a place where we save money, and eventually have revenues that meet our needs, I'd get rid of big cuts in the fire department", said Bauer. Sauer says the city is paying the price for poor management in the past, and says the city needs to develop a better reserve. There was discussion of making the fire department a volunteer fire department, which would be implemented by 2013 if the contract negotiations fall through. In regards to labor and personnel costs, recommendations included rearranging personnel and duties in departments, including possible temporary workers and layoffs. One possible suggestion included looking at central purchasing for all departments. Suggestions for health insurance could be creating an expense account to monitor health insurance funds. Ramey states the city needs to get in maintenance and planning mode to get the town stabilized. He states the city can't be the highest of the taxing bodies, stating this kills the growth of the town. He says city services can be negotiable, but the budget can't. "The one thing that can't be negotiated is that we have to have enough money to pay the bills and be black in the black, and I think that's the direction we're gonna go", said Ramey. Ramey will make the recommendations to the City Council at a later date. - http://goo.gl/VgIYQ
