Council decides on balanced, benign budget for Newport

Lolita Harper

City leaders will search for ways to save and ways to serve on

Tuesday, all while keeping a proper balance of the city’s funds when

they analyze the proposed budget.

Department heads, council members and residents will review the

proposed expenditures and revenue sources for fiscal year 2004-05 at

a study session on Tuesday, when Administrative Service Director

Dennis Danner said officials will “really get to the meat of the

budget.”

The proposed $158.5-million budget was “very status quo,” Danner

said. It is balanced and straight-forward, taking into account

various economic factors such as the state’s unpredictable financial

woes.

“If we had this same budget next year, people would be pleased,”

he said.

City Manager Homer Bludau said the city “grappled” with issues

such as the rising cost of the city’s pension plan, the timing of

employee contracts and the cost of delayed capital improvement

projects that have rolled their costs into the upcoming fiscal year.

The Capital Improvement Program included in the budget serves as a

funding plan for Newport’s public improvements, special projects and

ongoing maintenance programs, Bludau said. The program, which

consists of about 100 projects, totals $24.2 million of the $171.2

million of calculated expenditures, according to the proposed budget.

The city plans to see a relatively flat increase in revenues,

estimating about $156 million, up only 1.38% from last year. The

strong housing market, which brought about high property values and

taxes in previous years, is expected to continue to bolster the

city’s financial standing. Officials expect property taxes to make up

26% of revenues.

“This financial plan for 2004-05 is a conservative, cautious,

balanced plan that still attempts to competently address all known

(and some uncertain) challenges we think we will face in the upcoming

year,” Bludau wrote in his summary.

City officials distributed the proposed budget on April 30 and

held public meetings May 11 and 25. Danner said council members will

make a “checklist” during the study session of various items they

would like to further scrutinize. City officials will take input from

the residents and rework the numbers for final adoption of the budget

on June 22.