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Plano council begins identifying potential budget cuts
By Kim Nguyen, knguyeN@acnpapers.com
The Plano City Council and city staff met in a work session last week to discuss potential budget cuts for the upcoming budget cycle.
On the heels of approving a $400 million budget and property tax increase for the current fiscal year, getting a head start on the budget cycle for the 2010-11 fiscal year is necessary, as the city struggles from a steep drop in revenues generated from sales tax.
Despite national reports of a recovering economy and consumers loosening their grips on their wallets, the month of October posted nearly a 20 percent drop in sales tax collections in Plano.
Monday’s work session allowed the council to preview the budget and identify potential cuts as early as possible.
“Each department head did a fantastic job in providing detailed information about how they spend their money and what services are provided,” Dunlap said. “At the end of the day, though, we were not really successful in finding programs we can do without.”
Dunlap said no particular services or programs “jumped out at [the council] to save money,” but the council members volleyed many ideas, including cutting high school resource officers, eliminating the senior transportation program and closing the city’s libraries on Fridays.
But that’s where the things get dicey.
“There is a huge challenge in front of us. What makes Plano unique is that our citizens can find a variety of different services that make quality of life valuable,” said Harry LaRosiliere, mayor pro tem. “What matters to some doesn’t matter to others, and we, as a council, have to look at the whole population to make sure we’re servicing everyone.”
LaRosiliere said he has heard several suggestions from members of the Plano community about potential cuts, but maintaining an even hand proves difficult. He used the parks and recreation department as an example.
“To some people without kids that play in soccer leagues or T-ball leagues, parks and recreation doesn’t affect their quality of life,” LaRosiliere explained. “But when you have kids that do play in those leagues and sporting activities, it’s important to keep those fields in good condition and as a safe place for children to play. It matters to those people.”
Another example is the city’s library system.
“It’s easy to close libraries if you don’t go there, but if you go regularly, it’s a very tangible impact on life,” LaRosiliere said. “My goal is to maintain the high quality of life that Plano residents have come to expect. That’s the hard part -- remembering that there’s a cost associated with everything.”
LaRosiliere said whatever cuts the council decides to make will affect some, if not all, of the Plano population.
“The council will have to make difficult decisions on some cuts that will affect the quality of life of our citizens. Maybe we can explore a tax rate increase on revenues so we don’t completely disrupt the fabric of how we run the city,” he said. “Last year, the cuts were easier, but this year, they’ll be more obvious.”
Dunlap agrees.
“All of the things that are add-on and ‘low-hanging fruit’ that don’t really contribute to the betterment of the public have already been cut,” he said.
Ben Harris, Place 2 councilman, said this is the time for the Plano community to step up and tell the council of the importance of city services and programs.
“The upcoming decisions will be extremely difficult, but it highlights the importance of citizen interaction,” he said. “We started discussion this far in advance to prepare to make the right decision, and we will with citizen feedback throughout the process.”
The council will meet again in March for another core business matrix work session to re-evaluate the budget. Until then, the council will be poring over preliminary data to find more cuts and determine which programs and services need to go in order to meet the budget.
“Fortunately, we’re 10 months well ahead of the curve,” LaRosiliere said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, and October will be here before we know it.”
“The fact that we are already looking at a budget that doesn’t start in 10 months reflects the council’s commitment to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and efficiently,” Harris said. “No items will be left off the table. We will go through the budget line by line and leave no stone unturned. I am confident this council will make a decision that is in the best long-term interest for the city of Plano.”
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
datatroll wrote on Dec 17, 2009 1:59 PM:
" Rather than continually raising property taxes on all of it, why not increase user fees to where the user for things like many Park and Recreation activities (renting those soccer fields) actually cover the enhance costs of the parks. That makes for a VOLUNTARY tax (and the city can subsidize lower income people if need be as a separate, specific budget item). "
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