Councillors Approve Mayor’s 2018 Budget

By Sue Ellen Woodcock

City Councillor John Powers at the Council meeting Monday night.

The City Council approved a $184 million budget Monday night for fiscal year 2018, which goes into effect July 1.

“This is one of the leanest I’ve seen in recent years with only a three percent increase over last year’s budget,” said Ward 5 Councillor John Powers, who is chairman of the council’s Ways and Means Subcommittee. “It’s a lean budget and to make any cuts would be to eliminate services. This is a compliment to the Mayor and his staff.”

The Ways and Means Subcommittee held three budget sessions and went over the departments one by one.

The counsel also approved the use of $1 million in free cash to be used toward balancing the FY18 budget of $18,437,347 which also includes the school department.

The budget continues to hold the line on costs with non-school spending coming in at under three percent increase. Some of the increases in salaries were a result  of union contracts in the police, fire and DPW. Other new parts of the budget include the human resources department and the 311 Call Center.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.