Forest Lake city staff released today the proposed cuts and adjustments to its 2015 final budget, which would put the budget in line with the 2015 final property tax levy of $8.35 million approved on Dec. 8. To balance the budget, the city must cut approximately $590,000 from its preliminary 2015 budget.
Councilmen Michael Freer and Ben Winnick worked together as a subcommittee with City Administrator Aaron Parrish on the cuts throughout this week. The complete recommendation can be found here in the council meeting agenda for Dec. 15.
Under the plan, city Fire Inspector Bruce Wightman’s position would be eliminated at the end of this year. Park and Recreation Coordinator Nicole Schossow would be kept on at full time for the first six months of the year; after that, she may be kept on if she has brought in grant dollars to the extent that the council feels maintaining the position at its current level is a sound investment. If not, the job would be brought down to a part-time position. Parrish’s salary step increase will also be deferred.
There are also a variety of line item cuts and a few cuts to vehicle purchases and replacements. The two police officer cuts discussed during the initial round of budget talks were not included in the recommendations, nor were proposed cuts to the police’s K-9 program. The budget is still running at a deficit of roughly $43,000, which is proposed to be paid out of the city’s approximately $5.1 million in reserves.
The biggest single contributor to the budget cuts, however, is the application of expected surplus dollars in 2014. Thanks to primarily to an unexpected influx of building permits, city staff is estimating a likely surplus of about $230,000 for 2014. As such, that money would be used to pay for expenses that had been budgeted for 2015, including the purchase of a plow truck and some siren software.
More information will be posted as it becomes available. The City Council will discuss the proposed adjustments at its Dec. 11 meeting at 7 p.m.