Past decisions factor into city budget cuts

In 2007, according to Fort Scott Director of Finance Susan Brown, the city reduced the mill levy by 1.6 mills. That year, the city was the only tax levying entity to cut its mill levy. Brown said they decided to cut to give the citizens a tax break as valuations had increased. Because of this decision, Brown said they city is now having to spend its cash reserves at a rapid rate.

"Rather than taking advantage of valuations going up, we actually cut the mill levy and gave people a tax break," Brown said. "But we're paying for it now."

According to Brown, the city needs to maintain three months operating costs, approximately $600,000, in it's cash reserves. Currently the city is anticipating a cash reserve balance of just over $250,000.

"We are now spending our cash reserves," Brown said. "We are spending them down to kind of a catastrophic area."

At the beginning of the budget process, the city was faced with a mill levy increase of over 15 mills. The department heads and the commissioner were able to cut a total of $603,348 from the 2010 budget and the remainder of the 2009 budget. This cut reduced the mill levy increase to 2.5 mills.

"We knew we had to cut services and we had to cut projects and we had to cut personnel," Brown said.

Included in the cuts are five full-time positions (of which two currently vacant positions not being filled), all summer part-time positions with the exemption of mowing crews and swimming pool, freezing salaries, and freezing travel unless for certification purposes. Other cuts include donations to local agencies, donation to the fireworks display, cutting of the Tree Program, cutting the Downtown Program from a $10,000 donation to $5,000, cap the Volumetric Rebate Program at $5,000 per entity, and cutting the Community Development Officer position (which has never been filled).

No department escaped without being cut in some form. All departments had to cut day-to-day operations by a certain percentage. According to Brown, the percentage to be cut was dependent on the percentage of the budget the department uses.

Personnel and operational cuts are putting the city in a vulnerable position when it comes to snow removal and keeping up with weed nuisances.

"We concerned we won't be able to keep up with that ... because we don't have the manpower to do it," Brown said.

In addition to a mill levy increase, Brown said the city is looking to increase utility rates to increase revenue. Brown said there was period of 14 years in which rates were not increased. She added, many projects were completed during that time in which the cost was never passed to the customers.

"We are at that point where we need to pass that cost onto the customer," Brown said.

Brown said it has been a struggle to keep the mill levy as low as possible.

"It's been a challenging year and I think we have a few more years that are going to be more challenging. I don't think this is over," Brown said. "We just have to stay positive."

Despite a down economy, tax increases, and budget cuts, the city is still trying to remain progressive and pursue as many grant opportunities as possible.

"Even though the budget is reflecting we are spending more than we are taking in ... we're seeing some positive change in the community," Brown said. "We have a lot going on and we try not to let this keep us from being progressive."

WHERE CUTS WERE MADE

Budget Cut Breakdown by Department:

A plus mark (+) indicates a net increase in spending in that department.