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Plano: City facing $15M deficit for 2010-11 fiscal year
By Kim Nguyen, knguyen@acnpapers.com
While the Plano City Council narrowly escaped the budget deficit for the 2009-2010 fiscal year with a slight property tax increase, the council is not out of the woods just yet.
A slowdown in Plano’s primary revenue source, an economic recession, a mortgage industry crisis, high energy costs and competition from surrounding cities for tax dollars will continue to pose problems to Plano’s budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
The council met Monday and heard the current year’s status report and three-year financial outlook. According to the budget department’s preliminary projections, the city is facing deficits of $15 million for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, $29 million for the 2011-2012 fiscal year and $28 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
“Seeing those numbers, I was thinking that those are very real and very big figures,” said Mayor Phil Dyer. “But it’s not all gloom and doom, because we had a budget meeting as early as December and began working on the new budget immediately.”
The good news is that the deficit was originally projected at $23 million, and so far, $5 million of cuts were identified in the December meeting and were put into action.
“It was somewhat encouraging at seeing $8 million getting slashed off the budget simply from the staff members being proactive,” said Harry LaRosiliere, Place 5 councilman. “They were able to save 35 percent of the deficit by their cost-cutting measures, and that speaks volumes of their dedication to the city.
“The key is that some changes were identified and initiated immediately after adopting last year’s budget,” he said. “We talked about potential problems early so we can get a head start on the process.”
After adopting the 2009-2010 budget, the council immediately went to work to find additional cuts and savings for the 2010-2011 budget. The council held a Core Business Matrix meeting in December to discuss all the city’s core services, and city manager Tom Muehlenbeck appointed a budget reduction committee to identify further budget reductions.
The council will meet several times throughout the budget cycle to gradually whittle down the budget before it is adopted in October.
“There is obviously a lot more work to do from now until October,” Dyer said. “But can we cut enough to avoid a tax hike? I can’t answer that.”
After two consecutive years of deficits, the services and programs cut to balance this year’s budget will be felt by all. The catch to balancing the budget is maintaining the expenditure cuts from the prior year.
“We managed to cut the community add-ons last year – the things that are nice to have and residents wouldn’t see or feel a real lack of service,” LaRosiliere said. “However, in the next round, our residents will feel the cuts. With $15 million left to find, there’s not really much to cut without the residents noticing.”
Dyer said this year’s budget cycle will not be easy, considering how much fat has already been trimmed from previous budget deficits.
“Citizens from all over the city have different ideas of what fat, muscle and bone is; some citizens think that we cut into the muscle and bone during the last cycle,” he said. “There isn’t any low-hanging fruit anymore, because we have already made a significant amount of cuts. It won’t be easy, but we’ll have to make some very difficult decisions in the coming months.”
LaRosiliere said he hopes to identify expenditures that would not be felt by the Plano community. He said he will go into budget meetings with an open mind.
“I want to look at what makes Plano the best place to live, and that’s the combination of safety, aesthetics, cultural programs and diversity, libraries and public works – pieces of the puzzle,” he said. “The cuts we choose, hopefully, will not be at the expense of one city department. It will be a challenge, but there’s not another city in the Metroplex I’d rather be – because we have all the components to maintain a high-quality city despite the budget deficit.”
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