Green River must cut $1 million

Hard times are ahead for Green River.

Green River has gone through five straight years of budget cuts; and this coming fiscal year is no different. In fact, it’s worse.

“The state took some large hits this year,” Green River finance director Chris Meats said.

The city will plan a budget with a substantial cut in funds totaling $1.2 million. The deficit comes from two avenues of revenue; consensus funding from the county and sales taxes revenue.

The state has also cut its budget for the past five years. This year, Meats said the governor and state legislature cut about $500 million out of the state budget. He said although it sounds like a lot of money, it’s not a big percentage out of the state budget.

A decision was also made during the state’s legislative session to cut over-the-cap distribution funding to the state’s cities and towns by about 50 percent. Meats said traditionally, Green River has received about $1 million from direct distribution funds, which has decreased to about $750,000 this year.

The decrease of $250,000 wouldn’t make as big of an impact on Green River if it wasn’t paired with a significant drop in the city’s sales tax revenue. Green River’s sales tax came to $767,941 in February, compared to last February’s sales tax amount of $950,800.

The last time Green River’s sales tax revenue was this low was in 2005.

For the city, this means significant cuts. Meats said the city’s budget will need to be cut by between $1 million and $1.2 million.

“While in the past we’ve cut, we’ve never cut that much,” Meats said. “This will be our largest cutting year in five years.”

The city’s total general fun budget will be cut by about 10 percent.

Impact on Residents

There will be some changes and adjustments made throughout the city’s departments and the services the city provides.

“No department’s going to escape without some cuts,” Meats said.

“Any decrease in sales tax effects parks and recreation. The majority of things we do are funded by sales tax,” Brad Raney, parks and recreation director, said. “It’s vital to our operation.”

One way the department has cut down over the years to save money has been a decrease in personnel.

There were 13 full-time employees working in parks and recreation in 2008, now there are 11. The 34 seasonal employees in 2008 is down to 28.

Some departments may see more financial cuts than others, but all will see some. Meats says in order to meet the million-dollar cut, the city will need to do a combination of rate increases, fee changes, reduction in expenditures and the elimination of some services.

“We can’t meet our budget constraints with just cutting alone,” Meats said.

“Something I would be in favor of would be to change some of the fees and do some things like that, if each department cuts back about 5 percent,” Councilman Gary Killpack said.

Other than adjustments in rates, programs and services, 2016 will seem productive. A number of projects will be completed throughout the year as their funding has already been budgeted for and secured. City projects are planned and funds already allocated up through 2018. Projects include street improvements, the solid waste transfer station, the new waste water treatment plant and others.

“Money already allocated has to go specifically to those projects,” City Administrator Reed Clevenger, said.

“It’s going to feel like the status quo,” Clevenger said.

The city will not know exactly what will come of the cut until the budget has been worked through. The city is in the beginning stages of developing its budget now. The final budget will be voted on at the city council meeting June 21.

Residents are welcome to attend the meeting and any workshops discussing the budget before then.

“I’m optimistic about it. This is my fifth year, this is the smallest amount since I’ve been on the council that we’ve had to work with, so we’re really just going to have to watch what we’re doing,” Killpack said.

“I think we’re going to be fine. We’re just going to have to be careful; some things that we want, we might not be able to do,” he said.

“It’s going to be a tough year,” Killpack concluded.