The deficit has to be addressed and the budget balanced very soon
By Barb Pert Templeton
A townhall meeting about city budget processes and the special assessment district being considered in Marine City welcomed all interested parties to a townhall in the city on April 28.
City Manager Michael Reaves took the floor to share all the ins and outs of the city’s budget and need to adopt a balanced one for the next fiscal year in early June.
The general fund has a $650,000 deficit and Reaves has suggested some $450,000 in cuts. The list includes personnel matters such as reducing people from full-time to part-time status, a wipeout of any capital improvement items, plus a significant cut in all budgets across the board from training to supplies. Despite the diligent trimming of line items, the general fund still faces a $268,000 deficit.
A petition against allowing the city to establish a special assessment district to increase taxes so they can balance the city budget is currently being circulated in Marine City.
At the recent townhall, Reaves told the crowd it was not an official meeting of the city, it was an opportunity for him discuss the financial state of the city. He also took questions from the audience about the possibility of creating a special assessment district to bail the city out but put another 5 mils in tax dollars on the citizens.
“The last thing I ever wanted to do was ask you folks for more money,” Reaves said. “I understand the significance of our community, it’s obvious that perhaps all, or the vast majority can’t afford it. I don’t relish that and it’s the last thing I want to do.”
Reaves said he’s going to present a balanced budget, come what may, as is required by the laws of the state. How that’s accomplished is up to the commission as they make the final decision.
Reaves said he has put together five different budgets from what they started at this year – making different cuts to get a balanced budget and the changes will seriously affect the city’s ability to deliver services to residents.
As an example, Reaves explained that the general fund is the city’s checkbook and it pays a majority of the bills. Public safety services, which are police and fire, take up 50% of the fund.
Police department cuts that could become a reality in order to address the deficit could include:
· No police services from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
· No school resource officer – a savings of $50,000
· No replacing a retiring police officer this summer
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves talks about the city’s budget to a large crowd during a townhall on April 28.
· Having the police chief retire
Reaves said another solution could be sharing services with other communities, not only for police but for DPW and city managers too. He said he’s been working on a shared services proposal by talking to Clay Township and Algonac officials.
He said sharing city managers and governmental services where it makes sense and spreading out the costs of services between more people/communities could be a viable option.
In terms of doing something to produce revenue Reaves doesn’t know what else he can do but he’s willing to listen to ideas.
As for the ongoing infrastructure work in the city, with much of the underground lines at end-of-life status Reaves said the city had a whole generation that didn’t pay anything for infrastructure updates.
“We skipped a generation of people fixing the infrastructure, there’s a whole generation of people that never had to pay to fix the infrastructure,” Reaves said. “So now we have to do bonds, write grants and hope for programs with low interest loans.”
Regardless of what’s occurred the city manager said the bottom line is that the financial problems aren’t going away.
“I wish I could snap my fingers and make it go away, it’s not,” Reaves said. “And this is a great little community, it’s that quiet town, with lots of amenities and it’s worth saving.”
To see the recent townhall in its entirety go to CTV Community Television on YouTube.
A public hearing will he held at the city commission meeting on Thursday, May 7 at 7 p.m. where everyone interested can speak out on the topic.
The Marine City offices are located at 260 S. Parker.
