The Jefferson City Budget Committee voted Monday to move the adjusted proposed budget forward to the Jefferson City Council for final approval.
The overall proposed mayor-approved budget for fiscal year 2021 is $64,610,654, a decrease of 0.88 percent from the FY20 adopted budget.
Of that $64.6 million, approximately $32.8 million is in the projected general fund budget.
The FY21 budget will go into affect Nov. 1 and run until Oct. 31, 2021.
Mayor Carrie Tergin's proposed budget includes a 2 percent wage adjustment for all full-time city employees, except the city administrator, and all part-time employees with benefits.
The increase will have an estimated cost of $556,171 across all funds, with an impact on the general fund of approximately $443,653.
The mayor also proposed budget re-allocations to pay for five new police vehicles in the FY21 budget. The police department submitted 16 funding requests, or pink sheets, for police vehicles.
At a previous budget meeting, council members proposed funding an additional five vehicles. However at Monday's meeting, the committee removed the extra five vehicles from potential budget adjustments.
Several other items that were proposed previously were also removed - $225,000 for police personnel costs, $20,000 for abatement funds, $50,000 for demolition funds and $2,135 for tablets used by building inspectors.
Ward 4 Councilman Carlos Graham proposed and removed the funding for police personnel from the committee's tentative list of budget adjustments. The proposal was made to help the police department increase officer salaries and create more consistency within the department.
"That is certainly a topic that I am very interested in, I just don't feel that this is the right budget atmosphere to do that," Graham said.
The committee approved a revenue adjustment of $15,000 for the Planning and Protective Services Department, to come from building fees, which will offset an annual fee for electronic processing software.
The $23,500 cost to implement the software will potentially come from requested CARES Act funds from Cole County, City Administrator Steve Crowell said.
A pink sheet for $26,000 to replace a parking enforcement vehicle will also be funded through the city's parking fund.
The proposed budget will now move to the City Council for a final vote. The council has already introduced the budget to its agenda and placed it on the informal calendar, meaning a vote could take place at the next council meeting, Sept. 8.
After voting to move the budget on to the council, the committee discussed potential future revenue increases for the city.
Ward 5 Councilman Jon Hensley, who chairs the budget committee, said he feels the city should consider implementing a 2 percent use tax on online purchases, which could potentially bring in more than a million dollars in revenue each year.
"The amount of revenue we are forfeiting each year by choosing not to impose a use tax on eligible transactions is staggering, and the negative impact on the general fund and therefore the city's ability to adequately fund core services is devastating," Hensley said.
In August 2018, Jefferson City residents voted against Proposition L - a proposed 2 percent use tax on all out-of-state items to be used, stored or consumed in Jefferson City.
Finance Director Margie Mueller previously said, if the city passed a 2 percent use tax, it would be divided the same way as the city's sales tax - 1 percent to the general fund, a half percent to the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department and a half percent to capital improvements.
Two percent of the 2019 reported taxable sales that would be subject to a use tax sales would've brought about $2.1 million into the city, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue.
"Instead of having those funds, $85,000 had to be cut from last year's budget before we even received this year's proposed budget," Hensley said. "The almost $1.15 million we chose not to collect in 2019 would be enough to pay for about 32 new police vehicles. It's an important amount of money."
Tergin previously mentioned the potential implementation of a use tax at a budget committee meeting, and she said Monday that some Jefferson City businesses have recently mentioned a desire to see a use tax implemented.