3/25/13 - If the Brighton City Council intends for the city to remain in the black and out of a budget deficit in the coming years, it's going to have to do some serious budget-trimming, and combine it with new sources of revenue. City Manager Dana Foster unveiled three different proposed multi-year city budgets at last Thursday night's City Council meeting. They include the baseline 6-year budget forecast and two 6-year future deficit elimination plans. Foster stresses that the city is not operating at a deficit at this time and projects a surplus of $1.4 million at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30th. However, he cautions that the forecast for future years isn't so rosy, and predicts deficits - without some serious spending reductions. Foster says the city is getting less tax revenue because of the decline in property values and that - combined with losing a large number of tax cases that were appealed to the Michigan Tax Tribunal - is what's causing the budget crunch. Foster told council that "version one" of the future deficit elimination plan takes into consideration projected new revenue sources, combined with spending reductions. Foster says "version two" of the future deficit elimination plan assumes no new revenue sources, and therefore is Draconian in the spending cuts and personnel reductions it would require. But in the short term, the budget picture is much more positive. Foster says the proposed general fund budget for next year totals $7.6 million, a relatively slight, $330,000 reduction from the current year. Council will conduct three budget workshop sessions this week, tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday, to go over the different budget scenarios with a fine tooth comb. The meetings will be held at 6:30 p.m. each evening at city hall and are open to the public. (TT)
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