City manager unveils 'hold-the-line' budget.Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard Eugene homeowners would cough up a bit more in property taxes to support city government next year, under a proposed budget submitted by City Manager Dennis Taylor
Taylor's proposed $318.5 million spending blueprint blueprint, white-on-blue photographic print, commonly of a working drawing used during building or manufacturing. The plan is first drawn to scale on a special paper or tracing cloth through which light can penetrate. , up 8.5 percent over last year's budget, would hike property taxes by $30 on houses with the citywide average assessed value of $158,800. Taylor, presenting his first budget as city manager, described his plan as "a very modest," hold-the-line budget that maintains city services The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. . If approved, the Eugene Police Department would get five additional police officers, a half-time sergeant and two 911 dispatchers. Taylor said budget pressures have eased somewhat, so the City Council this year will not be faced with having to make deep cuts in services and personnel. "This is really a brief respite RESPITE, contracts, civil law. An act by which a debtor who is unable to satisfy his debts at the moment, transacts (i. e. compromises) with his creditors, and obtains from them time or delay for the payment of the sums which he owes to them. Louis. Code, 3051. from the kind of budgets that you have had to deal with the last several years," he told the city's budget committee, which is comprised of eight citizens and the eight city councilors. To prevent service cuts in the face of steadily increasing expenses, such as health insurance for city employees, Taylor and his department heads came up with $1.2 million in internal reductions. Some of the largest savings would come from leaving vacant city positions open. Overall, the number of full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE) is a way to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or a student's enrollment at an educational institution. An FTE of 1.0 means that the person is equivalent to a full-time worker, while an FTE of 0.5 signals that the worker is only half-time. employees will drop from 1,475 to 1,450 in the next fiscal year. The vast majority of the 25 positions will be eliminated through attrition Attrition The reduction in staff and employees in a company through normal means, such as retirement and resignation. This is natural in any business and industry. Notes: in city offices including stormwater, finance, facilities and information systems. Other savings would be achieved by no longer having to contribute to the Interagency in·ter·a·gen·cy adj. Involving or representing two or more agencies, especially government agencies. Narcotics narcotics n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required. Enforcement Team, which will be disbanded because of cuts. The budget committee will examine the spending plan through late May, before making its recommendations to the City Council. Eleven residents addressed the committee, most of them urging the panel to recommend that the city spend $50,000 on a program providing scholarships and wage subsidies to child care providers. Police Chief Robert Lehner told the committee that the five additional officers would be "chasing an increasing call (for service)." If Eugene is serious about a community policing system that emphasizes crime prevention, Lehner said, it needs to add about 32 police officers to its 76-officer force. Otherwise, officers will remain so busy that they will be unable to do the kind of preventative community outreach Outreach is an effort by an organization or group to connect its ideas or practices to the efforts of other organizations, groups, specific audiences or the general public. activities that are part of community policing, he said. "We can handle the calls for service, barely," he said. "But we really don't have the capacity for pro-active activities." While Taylor said budget pressures have eased somewhat for the next fiscal year, the future financial outlook is less positive. Among other things, city administrators in the next few years must prepare for the expiration EXPIRATION. Cessation; end. As, the expiration of, a lease, of a contract, or statute. 2. In general, the expiration of a contract puts an end to all the engagements of the parties, except to those which arise from the non- fulfillment of obligations created of the local option tax levy to operate the library, and find money for parks and open space maintenance obligations. BUDGET PROPOSAL Proposed spending: $318.4 million, up 8.5 percent from last fiscal year Department spending: Up 2.4 percent Property taxes: Up $30 on a house with the citywide average assessed value of $158,800, to $1,472 Budget highlights: Relies on $1.2 million in internal cuts and savings to help deal with increasing expenses, including 14.5 percent annual rise in health insurance for city employees, totalling $1.7 million |
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