City of Moses Lake maintaining budget

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake City Council was updated about how the city’s budget is fairing in the economy.

City Manager Joe Gavinski said as long as revenue and income continue the way they are, the budget will be in good standing. He said so far the city is on budget but are monitoring it more closely as sales tax revenue declined.

In the last sales tax report provided to council, it showed less than one percent of an increase in sales tax for 2009 over the past year during the same time.

Gavinski said at the beginning of the year, department heads were told to budget as though they faced a 5 percent cut in funding. The departments have not had to utilize the decreased version of the budget but are prepared to do so just in case.

He said as long as sales tax, utility tax and property tax continue to flow to the general fund as they are, and as long as there are no major expenditures, the city will be on budget at the end of the year.

If there are major expenses and drops in revenue, the city may need to begin discussing layoffs.

“We continue to monitor the situation as we have it,” said Gavinski. “If we continue to maintain as we have, both in terms of our receipts and our expenditures, we’ll do just fine through the year.”

He said some emergency end-of-the-year expenses could include a large snow fall resulting in more plowing and sanding than expected.

This year the city was able to give budgeted raises of 3.5 percent to city employees, he said.

Currently police and firefighters have not received their annual raises. Both groups are represented by unions. The city proposed a 3.5 percent increase but it is being disputed. The contracts have not been settled and could eventually be settled in arbitration. Once the wages are settled, the union employees will receive back pay for 2009. Gavinski said if the employees receive more than the proposed 3.5 percent wage increase, the city may have to review the budget.