Jefferson City officials are laying the ground work for the 2016 budget, preparing the City Council for the tough decisions ahead.
At a work session Monday, city staff presented several financial overviews and long range plans to council members outlining some of the difficulties expected in the next few years, including replacing vehicles and equipment.
Finance Director Bill Betts said the city allocated roughly $300,000 for capital equipment and vehicle replacements, but in an ideal world that allocation would be closer to $892,000 annually to deal with the amount of needed replacements.
"We're not in an ideal world," Betts said. "Finding that money is very difficult."
If the council were to continue allocating roughly $300,000 for replacements, Betts said the deferred costs would total nearly $3 million by 2020.
Third Ward Councilman Bob Scrivner said the city has been deferring replacements for about five years and the situation will only get worse with time.
"We've been doing it for five years and the more we defer, the more pronounced the effect," Scrivner said.
The council also will have to discuss staffing levels for the 2016 budget, as department heads have made several requests for positions that remain unfunded.
During the discussions for the 2015 budget, the council initially approved four previously unfunded positions: one police officer, one fire training officer, one administrative position in the Human Resources Department and one street maintenance worker.
However, before giving the budget final approval, the council voted 8-2 to remove all four positions and put the funding in a separate line item requiring council approval before being spent. The idea was to give City Administrator Steve Crowell time to do an analysis and evaluation of city staffing levels and long-term goals before giving a recommendation to the City Council.
On Monday, Crowell said the Human Resources position and the fire training officer were the two highest priorities, in his opinion, though he noted the more prudent course of action would be to wait on all positions and have the discussion during the 2016 budget meetings.
Because of concerns about long-range finances and whether the funds would be there to continue the positions in the next budget cycles, council members took no action Monday and indicated the decisions likely would come during the 2016 budget discussions.
Another issue the council soon will have to deal with is the next installment of the half-cent capital improvement sales tax, G.
The city is currently collecting sales tax F, which will sunset March 31, 2017. The city is now preparing for the seventh, five-year installment of the tax since 1987, which would need to be on the ballot next year. Because Cole County also has a five-year capital improvement sales tax, city officials said they would meet with county officials to discuss both projects and when to place the issue on the ballot in 2016.