In Gallup, budget time means tough decisions

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — The good news is, despite claims to the contrary, Gallup continues to grow. The bad news is, as with any city, it’s never enough for everything that is needed. That was the message at last night’s special budget meeting from Executive Director of Administrative Services Judi Starkovich during a rundown for the project budget for FY2009.“A lot of people say Gallup is not growing. But revenues have grown about 7 percent every year,” Starkovich told the mayor and council.

They city is projecting $25.7 million in revenues in FY 2009, which is an increase from the $23.9 million that are currently projected for FY 2008.

As expected, expenditures also continue to climb.

Personnel costs will rise from $13.4 million in FY2008 to $14.4 million for an 8.1 percent increase. Part of that projected increase is possible increases in benefits, which the city has not yet approved.

But the city is also looking to hire more people.

Department requests totaled $457,265 in salary and benefits for 15 new positions. The Budget Committee is recommending the city add on two people in planning, three new firefighters for the new station, a crew leader for the streets department, and an administrator for the GIS system, which directs emergency response crews. The recommended new positions will cost the city $255,803.
Operating costs for FY2009 are expected to jump nearly 22 percent over the previous fiscal year. Starkovich attributed the high jump to the practice of “cushioning unforseen shortfalls” and stressed that city departments have never had expenditures that met budgeted levels.

“Department heads have been very good about being frugal with their budgets ...This is all projections. We never come close to budget,” she explained.

The expenditures are real operating costs and do not include capital costs. Capital outlay projects — which are expenditures for assets over $5,000 — in FY 2008 was $2.8 million. This year, the projection is only $560,000, a conservative figure that the city can likely meet. Since these are considered nonrecurring costs, any increase in one area will mean a decrease in another. The current requests are $4.1 million for everything from computers to jack hammers.

The public works department is requesting about $5 million for infrastructure improvements around the city. This includes everything from more planning on the Second Street underpass to intersection improvements. But it appears that the budget will only have $2.2 million available.

The mayor and city council will now examine the figures Starkovich provided. No decisions were made at last night’s meeting. The council agreed to meet on April 30 in a special work session to discuss what plans will be made for the final budget, which will be finalized in mid-May and sent to the state on June 1.

The city has some tough decisions ahead.

“There’s a lot of work to do,” Councilor Allan Landavazo commented as the meeting came to a close.