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Council balances budget, avoids surcharge
By Denise Schoppe
Staff Writer
The Marlin Democrat
September 29, 2004
With a round of applause, the Marlin City Council unanimously approved the 2005 city budget at the Sept. 21 special council meeting.
"I think on behalf of myself and everyone, we need to thank city manager Miles (Shaunfield) and council women Elizabeth Nelson and Paula Kluck for what they did for this budget," Mayor Norman Erskine said. "They spent a lot of time, a lot of their personal time, on it."
Nelson and Kluck discovered that more than $400,000 worth of expenses were counted twice,
which caused the budget to come in with a $180,000 deficit.
To compensate for the deficit, an additional surcharge was proposed to be added to residents water bills. Shaunfield was directed to meet with department heads to look for places in which expenses could be cut to help either avoid the surcharge or to atleast keep it as low as possible.
"All the department heads have done a good job," Erskine said. "This is the first time, that I know of, that everyone came in with a budget, and we had to ask them to go back and reevaluate and readjust. They did. It proves to us that we've got people out there working for the city who are doing us a good job."
The discovery of the mistake in the budget, however, is what finally made any surcharge no longer necessary.
The error lay in the fact that the sanitation department expenses were overstated by over $420,000 because it included road expenses which was already tallied in another location of the budget. The corrected error left the city with a $130,000 surplus in its 2005 budget, which will be used on expensive maintenance problems, should they occur.
In other action:
-- the council heard public opinion of the proposed tax increase of 4.28%.
-- unanimously approved a change in the Waste Management Contract that would cause a 2% increase to the franchise fee, which would raise the fee from 5% to 7%. The change would cause no increase charge to the citizens, it one only cause an increase in the amount that is returned to the city.
-- unanimously approved a contract with HGAC on purchasing electricity to avoid a TXU/SESCO rate increase as well as lowering the current rate by 11%.
-- unanimously approved adopting a burn ban ordinance for the City of Marlin.
By Denise Schoppe
Staff Writer
The Marlin Democrat
September 29, 2004
With a round of applause, the Marlin City Council unanimously approved the 2005 city budget at the Sept. 21 special council meeting.
"I think on behalf of myself and everyone, we need to thank city manager Miles (Shaunfield) and council women Elizabeth Nelson and Paula Kluck for what they did for this budget," Mayor Norman Erskine said. "They spent a lot of time, a lot of their personal time, on it."
Nelson and Kluck discovered that more than $400,000 worth of expenses were counted twice,
which caused the budget to come in with a $180,000 deficit.
To compensate for the deficit, an additional surcharge was proposed to be added to residents water bills. Shaunfield was directed to meet with department heads to look for places in which expenses could be cut to help either avoid the surcharge or to atleast keep it as low as possible.
"All the department heads have done a good job," Erskine said. "This is the first time, that I know of, that everyone came in with a budget, and we had to ask them to go back and reevaluate and readjust. They did. It proves to us that we've got people out there working for the city who are doing us a good job."
The discovery of the mistake in the budget, however, is what finally made any surcharge no longer necessary.
The error lay in the fact that the sanitation department expenses were overstated by over $420,000 because it included road expenses which was already tallied in another location of the budget. The corrected error left the city with a $130,000 surplus in its 2005 budget, which will be used on expensive maintenance problems, should they occur.
In other action:
-- the council heard public opinion of the proposed tax increase of 4.28%.
-- unanimously approved a change in the Waste Management Contract that would cause a 2% increase to the franchise fee, which would raise the fee from 5% to 7%. The change would cause no increase charge to the citizens, it one only cause an increase in the amount that is returned to the city.
-- unanimously approved a contract with HGAC on purchasing electricity to avoid a TXU/SESCO rate increase as well as lowering the current rate by 11%.
-- unanimously approved adopting a burn ban ordinance for the City of Marlin.
