KALAMAZOO (WKZO) — Kalamazoo City Commissioners will huddle Monday afternoon to analyze the city manager’s proposed budget for 2016, and make changes in the $134 million spending plan before next week’s public hearing.
It may be their only dedicated meeting to go over the proposal, but participants in the talks have been talking about the budget all year.
Their revenue stream will be buoyed this coming year by one-time grants that will help them partially erase a multi-million dollar deficit. A one-time bump in property tax revenue due to the change in the personal property tax and a major Community Oriented Policing Services grant will help.
The city manager is also proposing changes in the way the city funds road construction. He would like commissioners to tap unused money from the city’s economic initiatives fund, which should provide about $1 million.
The city’s overall budget calls for about $134 million in spending, which covers all services and enterprises. The figure includes the regional water and wastewater system, the golf courses and Metro Transit, which are separate budgets.
The general fund, which covers Kalamazoo Public Safety, streets, economic development, parks and recreation and other core services, will have a budget of $55 million.
The touchiest proposal is a possible hike in the solid waste millage, which has stood at 1.55 mil’s for a number of years, despite a dramatic decline in city property values and rising costs. The program funds street sweeping, forestry services, and the popular bulk trash pick-up and recycling programs.
Manager Jim Ritsema says they will either have to go with a 0.35-mill tax hike or find half a million dollars somewhere else in the general fund.
Commissioners plan a public hearing on the proposed budget during next Monday regular session. They expect to approve the budget during the first meeting of next year.
– John McNeill
