Proposed City Budget Is Repeat Of Previous Years
Mayor Larry Hart (right) goes over purposed city budget during first Tuesday board meeting Aug. 4.
WATER VALLEY – The city’s proposed 2017 budget was introduced at last week’s city meeting and is basically a replay of the last several years.
“This year’s budget has performed very well, both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side,” Mayor Larry Hart told aldermen before outlining the expenditures for each department.
The $2.944 million budget includes $423,700 for the general government portion of the budget, $815,500 for police, $400,200 for fire, $717,500 for public works (street department), $295,000 for health and sanitation and $292,600 for parks and cemetery.
Hart said the anticipated revenue from all sources – including the amount to be raised by the tax levy of 37 mills – is $3,240,983. A hearing is scheduled Sept. 6 for public input and will be held in conjunction with the monthly meeting at the city hall at 6 p.m. A second meeting is scheduled on Sept. 13 to adopt the budget.
Other business discussed at the meeting included:
• Declared a small strip of city-owned property on Clay Street as surplus and agreed to take bids for it. Hart said an adjacent property owner be interested in submitting a bid.
“I think it would be wise for us to declare it as surplus property and sell it, so we can get the property back on the tax rolls,” Hart said.
• Renewed the city agreement with the Second Chance Animal Alliance to provide care for animals picked up by animal control.
“Everything is working pretty good with that,” Hart added.
• Approved the purchase of a tractor equipped with a grapple bucket and bush hog for the electric department at the state contract price of $34,000.
“We have purchased our smart meters, we got those paid for, so now we have sufficient funds,” Hart said about the funds in the electric department budget.
