City Council tackles projected $1.8 million dollar budget deficit for next year
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal
The Eagle Pass City Council held their second 2014-2015 Budget Workshop on Tuesday, August 19, 2014. During the workshop, City Council and Administration discussed a variety of informative items and proposals on how to close a projected $1.8 Million deficit to the proposed 2014-2015 City of Eagle Pass Fiscal Year Budget.
City Manager Gloria Barrientos presented the City Council with a breakdown stating that the City’s major services from the general fund such as police, fire protection, emergency medical services, parks and recreation, street repair and maintenance make up 70% of the City of Eagle Pass budget.
“Our police services operating expenditures are at $ 5.1 million dollars compared to operating revenues of at $279,732 dollars,” said City Manager Barrientos.
Fire and emergency medical services expenditures total $3.9 million dollars compared to operating revenues from ambulance fees, fire inspections and County of Maverick charges totaling $1.3 million, an operating deficit of $2.6 million dollars.
Parks and Recreation operating expenditures total $2.3 million compared to operating revenues of$142,238 for an operational deficit of $2.1 million, stated Barrientos.
Street Repair and Maintenance operating expenditures total $ 1.3 million dollars compared to operating revenues of $26,960 dollars for an operational deficit of $1.3 million, stated Barrientos.
Other services including code enforcement, vector control, planning and building, street cleaning, and administrative services operating expenses are at $5.6 million compared to operating revenues as of $479,128 with an operational deficit of $5.1 million.
The total operating deficit for all services under the scope of the City of Eagle Pass operations is at $16.1 million.
Additional revenues to the City of Eagle Pass include ad valorem property taxes are at $4.6 million, sales tax $4.8 million, franchise taxes $975,830 and other taxes at $35,301 dollars.
Transfer Revenues are additional funding that come from the enterprise fund to the general fund including from the City International Bridges at $4.5 million, other transfers at $190,000 dollars, and miscellaneous revenues are at $25,690 dollars.
The summary is an operational deficit of $16.1 million dollars compared to supplemental revenues of $16.2 million.
City Manager Barrientos stated that in the previous budget workshop held they had a projected budget shortage of $2.9 million to the general fund but that they have been able to reduce that projected deficit to $1.8 million on the general fund.
Barrientos stated that they will be meeting with the different City Departments to formulate a possible financing plan to cover some of the capital outlay request which in turn will allow the City the ability to reduce some of the projected $1.8 million deficit.
Barrientos also presented the Eagle Pass City Council different proposals to consider to offset and balance out the projected shortfall of funds in order to obtain a balanced operational budget before the September 2014 deadline to approve the 2014-2015 City of Eagle Pass fiscal year budget.
“In the next two weeks, we will be discussing those possibilities,” said Barrientos.
The projected 2014-2015 fiscal year expenditures of $20.3 million are $1.8 Million greater than the overall projected revenues of $18.4 Million.
City Manager Gloria Barrientos stated that they are looking at this year’s budget (2013-2014) and are looking at having additional funds left over that will be used and transferred to this year’s capital outlay request to cover some of these services without having to cut any of those funds and make good on those request.
Barrientos ended her presentation by stating that the City Administration is currently looking at other ways to increase revenues for the City of Eagle Pass that will be beneficial for the community and the City of Eagle Pass.
The City Council will hold another budget workshop in the near future to iron out the projected numbers and shortages seen at this presentation in an effort to obtain a balanced 2014-2015 budget before final approval.
