Huntington's budget is the same old story

Proposed Huntington city budget shows little to no change for upcoming fiscal year


The economic struggles of the country have their affect on many cities around the country, and as Mayor Kim Wolfe explained in his address of the proposed budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, Huntington is no different.

Even with the small steps to economic recovery that can be seen around the nation, small cities such as Huntington are still feeling the recession effects. “The budget being presented has cuts in a number of different areas,” Wolfe said. “Most significant are cuts in personnel, within finance, Mayor’s Office, Public Works, civilian staff at the Police Department and keeping the current vacancies unfilled at the Fire Department for a second year in a row.”

This year’s proposed budget shows little to no change from last year’s budget, or even the year before that. The expenditures budget for the city in 2009 was $41.7 million, it dropped to $38.9 million in 2010, and the proposed budget for the upcoming year is $39.8 million. With numbers that large, and the changes being so small, the percent of change is relatively insignificant.

The two largest expenditures of the city over the past three years have been the Police and Fire Departments. Those departments have accounted for over 50% of the cities spending over the past three years and those numbers are set to continue. The problem is that the numbers have remained flat over the past three years, which has not allowed for improvements, and according to City Council representative Sandra Clements, has reduced the overall effectiveness of the departments.

“When you lay people off it reduces the efficiency of the department,” Clements said. “We have to learn to live within our budget and work with what we have.”

Although the proposed layoffs and cuts will be minimal, they will still leave holes within the city departments. An increase in city revenue would be the only way to save those jobs, but as of right now there is only a slight increase from the previous year. With the B&O tax and Municipal Service Fees bringing in most of the money for the city (Table 1), it will be up to the city leadership to come up with creative methods to increase the amount of money coming in for city use.

“This year’s financial picture without additional revenue sources is just as difficult, if not more so,” Wolfe said. “The proposed 2011-12 budget does not see any significant increases in revenue.” If the city is going to prosper and allow city employees to keep their jobs, there is going to have to be significant increases in revenue in the upcoming years.

Mayor Wolfe, the ball is in your court.