City budget holds steady at $270 million during first reading

Columbus Council held two of the three state-required public hearings and the first reading on the city’s Fiscal 2017 budget.

The final number of $270.013 million is $40,000 higher than Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s proposal of $269.973 million, an increase of .00015 percent.

Council will meet next Tuesday to hold a second reading and final vote on the budget ordinance. The budget will go into effect on July 1.

Tomlinson said this budget is a milestone because it’s the first in years that does not dip into General Fund Reserves to balance the numbers.

“We’ve obviously turned a corner and that’s a good sign,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that there’s an excess of funds. It means we’re living by our means. We have finally for the first time in almost two decades we’ve gotten a budget that actually lives by the revenue we take in, and I think that has been a cultural shift for us as a council and as a community.”

The only disappointment in the process Tomlinson mentioned was council’s decision to cut her proposed full funding of the Columbus Aquatic Center at $1.27 million. Council balked at the mayor’s funding ideas for fully funding the facility, cutting the budget back to just under $1 million.

Just as the first reading was about to end, Councilor Glenn Davis spoke up to propose that council compromise on one of Tomlinson’s proposals for funding the aquatic center by increasing after-school program fees. Tomlinson’s proposal was to increase the fees by $4 a week, which would have produced $200,000 for the center. Davis suggested a $2 a week increase, which would have increased the center’s budget by $100,000, but only he and Councilor Evelyn Turner Pugh voted for the compromise, so the budget remained unchanged.

Tomlinson said she was proud not only of staying out of the Reserve Fund, but also that the budget replenishes the fund slightly. While doing that, the budget offers all city employees a 2 percent cost-of-living pay increase, reforms police pay to help attract and retain new officers and funds 33 new garbage trucks with a $2 a month garbage fee increase.

“I think it’s been a great process. I’m proud of this particular budget,” the mayor said. “Council didn’t make too many changes, and it looks like we’re in a new groove of being even more fiscally prudent that we have been historically.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 7:31 PM with the headline "City budget holds steady at $270 million during first reading."