Budget panel makes tentative cuts to aquatic center funding

Two Columbus Councilors, acting as members of the Budget Review Committee, tentatively trimmed almost $75,000 from the budget of the Columbus Aquatic Center’s budget Tuesday.

The cuts would have to be voted on in the final version of Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s proposed fiscal 2017 budget before they become permanent.

During a lengthy discussion of the center’s budget, Councilor Gary Allen said he could not support adding a $100 per team fee for youth athletic teams because there are many teams and leagues that cannot afford it, and it would reduce the opportunities for children of lesser means.

“There is no justification for a $100-a-team fee,” Allen said. “I’d like to put that $50,000 on the delete list.”

Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Evelyn Turner Pugh agreed with Allen.

“Those youth leagues are the most precious things in this community,” Turner Pugh said. “You either pay now and take care of them, or you pay later by hiring more police officers.”

Similarly, Councilor Mike Baker said he could not support increasing user fees at Cooper Creek Tennis Center and using that money for the aquatic center. He placed the $24,000 it would generate on the delete list, as it applies to the swimming facility. He said that, with the expansion of the center, the money would likely be needed there instead of the aquatic center.

“I would like the people out there to see these fees used to help pay for any increased positions,” Baker said. “So I would like to see the additional $24,000 stay in the tennis center rather than being pulled out.”

There was also considerable discussion of a proposal to increase fees on the after-school programs that the department operates in many of the city’s schools. The increase would be $4 per child per week, but would maintain the current sliding scale based on income. The fees range from $21 to $56 a week, but would rise to $25 to $60 a week.

Several councilors expressed misgivings about putting a burden on families who might not have anything to do with the aquatic center. But none moved to put the $200,000 it would generate for the center on the delete list.

Council has gone back and forth on whether to hire an outside company to operate the facility, which is how the center was opened, or turning it over to Parks and Rec, as it has been run on an interim basis since the city dismissed the previous vendor last year.

Faced with a council divided over which direction to go and over how much funding to give it, Tomlinson opted to put it into her fiscal 2017 budget, fully funded at $1.24 million, and to operate for 89 hours a week.

To make up the difference between that and the approximately $850,000 budgeted last year, Tomlinson proposed a series of fee hikes, including the youth league fees, tennis center hikes and the after-school fee increases, among others.

Council will continue to hear from different departments over the next several weeks, then enter the formal process of budget hearings to satisfy state law and the city charter. Before the budget is finalized, councilors will vote on individual items on the add-delete list and decide how to fund them, if confirmed.

The budget by law has to be finalized and approved by June 30, the end of fiscal 2016.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Budget panel makes tentative cuts to aquatic center funding."