The Henderson City Council approved the budget for fiscal 2006-2007 in a unanimous vote on Monday evening.
The vote on the budget ordinance was preceded by two other ordinance votes. The first was an ordinance to close out various revenues and expenditures in the fiscal 2005-2006 budget.
Council member Elissa Yount observed that the line item for “governing body” went overbudget by $16,000 for professional services. She asked how such overages could be avoided.
City Manager Jerry Moss responded that part of the reason for the additional expenditure was the firm that had been hired to negotiate the cable television franchise agreement.
Moss also noted that there was a $25,000 bond arbitrage rebate that had to be paid to the federal Internal Revenue Service. This debt was created by excess interest generated by $1.3 million held by the city for debt service on the water bond.
“Those are things you just can’t plan on,” Moss said.
The ordinance passed without opposition.
The second ordinance was to adopt a rate schedule for charges and fees relative to water and sewer service. This ordinance raised the water and sewer rate by 3% each.
Moss translated the rate hike by stating that if a residential customer had been paying $50 per month for water and sewer service, that user would now pay $51.50 for the same service.
Moss also informed the council that water was being sold for $.72 per cubic foot outside of the city to users of over 500,000 cubic feet per month, and that this was cheaper than the city’s cost. In the ordinance, he had recommended an increase to $1.02 per cubic foot, which is the city’s cost.
The ordinance passed with council member Mary Emma Evans opposed. Evans has frequently expressed opposition to rate hikes for water and sewage services.
Commenting on the budget ordinance, FAIR Committee Chair Lynn Harper said that she was pleased to present the budget. She said that council members and city staff had worked hard to develop and adjust it.
Moss mentioned that a couple of items had been changed, but that it had no effect on the ordinance. Moss made reference to the bound budget “book” which contains budget line items. The city manager informed the council that the budget book is a working document.
Yount refered to the fifth page of the budget ordinance, number B, stating that she thought that interdepartmental transfers had to have council approval. She and Moss eventually agreed that the word “interdepartmental” should be changed to “in the same department” for the sake of clarity.
Moss told the council that fifteen positions had been unfrozen and new positions had been created. He stated that the city was trying to “streamline” operations.
“You will see some differences in the way we do business,” Moss said to members.
Harper then informed the council that the Vance County Board of Commissioners had called for a meeting that day. She said that the commissioners had asked questions about the Recreation Department budget and were very impressed with what Moss had done with it.
According to Harper, commissioners had also raised the question of funding one-half of a clerical position at the Vance County Animal Control Department at a cost of $11,250 to the city. She said that they had indicated that the work the animal control officer does is due to the city.
Harper told members that the FAIR Committee had concluded that they wish to leave that and other joint funding discussions on the table, but they do not wish to include them in the budget at this time.
Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert remarked that the budget that the council adopts can be changed, except for the tax rate.
“There are ways to change that too, if you want to,” Seifert said, referring to the tax rate. The tax rate is currently $.67 on $100 valuation of property.
The budget passed without opposition.