The Henderson City Council passed a motion on Monday night to not fund the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central North Carolina’s SOS program at Eaton-Johnson Middle School.
Member Mary Emma Evans cast the sole negative vote.
Interim Executive Director Sandra Whitten and Unit Board President Ken Long came before the council on July 27, 2009 to request approximately $16,000 in emergency funding to replace grant money lost because of state budget cuts.
Before the vote on the motion not to fund, City Manager Ray Griffin recommended that the council not approve funding for the request because resources are not available at present. He said that sales tax revenues continue to be below projections from prior years, and that he had learned that the state will withhold two-thirds of the tax levy on beer and wine, translating to a $51,000 shortfall in the city’s 2010 budget.
Griffin told members that the only means they have to fund the Boys & Girl’s Clubs program is to take the money from the fund balance appropriation.
The current fund balance is 10.2% of the total city budget. The council has resolved to build the fund balance until it is at 30%. It recently increased the property tax in the city by two cents per hundred dollars of valuation in order to increase the unrestricted fund.
Long thanked the council for it’s time and effort.
“We are all suffering and I understand that,” Long told members.
Evans asked members if the city could give the clubs “a little something”. Daeke responded during the ensuing discussion that he did not see how it could be done, given the cuts made to the Recreation Department and the fire fighter position that was put on hold during budget deliberations earlier this year.