Austin pitches budget cuts to save $20M

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The City of Austin is looking to make some major cuts to the budget because of a revenue shortfall. Wednesday morning, City of Austin staff presented a menu of budget cuts to the Austin City Council .

Among the proposed cuts, libraries will close earlier and open later, police detectives would starts patrolling major events, and the city would close an underused day labor site in South Austin. The proposed cuts are designed to save the city $20.1 million.

"These are difficult decisions for me and for the staff," said Austin City Manager Marc Ott, who has been responsible for dealing with $53 million in cuts since the end of the 2008 budget cycle.

 

Ott called on each department last year to cut at least 2 percent of its budget. Some cut more, like the Information Technology department at 6 percent. Others like the Municipal Court and Fire Department did not cut any money from their budgets.

 

City staff said they did not call for cuts from the fire department because Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr just took the job a week and a half ago.

"The idea is to give the chief an opportunity to not only asses the current issues with overtime," said Deputy Chief Financial Officer Greg Canally. "But also the overall budget and how she wants to approach managing that budget."

The Municipal Court made up savings from a contract that was not as much as expected. The cuts come chiefly from general revenue fund departments like police and parks. Those departments make up a brunt of the city budget.

The city is calling for the cuts because of a shortfall of sales tax revenues. Last year, city officials predicted a 3 percent increase in sales tax revenue for the 2008 to 2009 year, which began Oct. 1.

The city now expects to take in $145 million in sales taxes this year instead of $161 million it expected.

 

 

 

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