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LOCK HAVEN -- City Council moved all of its reserve funding into its General Fund in an effort to cut down an over $600,000 deficit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision was made unanimously after City Manager Gregory Wilson gave council an overview of the financial hardships the city may face throughout the remainder of 2020.
"Right now the city is estimated to experience a loss of $709,000 in revenue this year. That is pretty significant for us and is about 12 percent," Wilson said.
Wilson broke down the parts of the budget with the biggest losses.
"We will have an estimated $344,000 less in taxes come in. We will see $60,000 less in fines, $55,000 in charges for services that include $45,000 less in parking fees," he said.
Wilson further explained the loss in parking fees -- including tickets and excess meter revenue -- has effected the city.
"Before everyone jumps for joy that we don't have parking fees. I want to point out that parking fees subsidize the police department which is the only police force in Clinton County that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week including holidays," he said.
All excess meter revenue and parking revenue goes toward funding the police department, he said.
The city also saw a loss of about $23,000 and $24,000 in local services tax which is put aside for the city's three fire stations.
An additional $46,000 worth of additional expenditures due to COVID-19 are also tacked onto the $664,000, increasing that total to $709,000 that must be cut from the 2020 budget, Wilson said.
"In the end, looking at significant revenue losses for the year of about 12 percent, it is also necessary to reduce expenditures because we have very limited reserves," he said.
The city had $90,060 in its reserve fund which was transferred to the General Fund by council Monday night.
In an effort to cut back on the deficit, Wilson proposed an updated budget which would cut multiple projects and programs from the budget including $8,825 to lease a new police vehicle. The lease will be pushed to 2021, Wilson said.
Also, the city will not be looking at hiring a new airport director for a savings of $30,064 and cancellation of the summer recreation program with Keystone Central School District will save $8,000 in supplies.
The largest change will be pulling $208,000 in payroll from the city's liquid fuels allocation for 2020. This will push back the storm water management at Sunset Pines from a four-year project to six.
"This is due to eating up liquid fuel funds on eligible reimbursements for payroll of public works employees in streets and storm water," he said.
Wilson reviewed some of the funding relief options that they may be eligible for, and those they won't.
The CARES Act will provide some relief, he said.
"There is relief to the city of about $10,000 from the CARES Act for unemployment relief," Wilson said.
The city could also apply for CARES Act funding awarded to the county, he said.
"The county will be getting .489 million from the CARES Act," he said.
This funding can be used to cover the county's own COVID-19 increase costs, small business assistance, tourism assistance, behavioral health, substance abuse, non profit support and broadband.
"Because of the laundry list of things we will be basically competing against those other interests for a slice of that county money. The county is under no obligation to provide anything to the city," he said.
The city will have the chance to receive 100 percent relief of paid FMLA which was put into effect as part of the family first coronavirus response. "That's about $7,500," Wilson said.
The city's biggest source of reimbursement will be from their insurance company Penn Prime.
"Our insurance company does share a limited pool with the entire continental United States of $10 million," he said.
Wilson hopes the city will be able to receive some funding, aiming for $55,000, but is uncertain if that will be possible.
"California has already started to tap into that money and it is first come, first serve," he said.
When requesting the $90,000 from the reserve fund be moved, Wilson said he would do the best he can to cut the deficit while still maintaining staff.
"The only personnel to cut are the doers. They are the people who built the outdoor park, the people who will put into motion closing of Main Street on Friday and Saturday, the people who fill your potholes, the people who answer your phone calls, the people who process your comments, concerns and questions; and the people who solve your problems," Wilson said.
"We have already cut staff to such an extreme degree that we cannot cut anymore staff realistically. So what has to be cut is a lot of capital purchases. But we have done without these things before and we'll continue without them in order to balance the budget," he continued.