The Shadow
Covington City Council met again Tuesday evening to work its way through a tight 2019-2020 fiscal year budget.
Previous work sessions focused on revenues, which are projected to come in at around $18.4 million.
Unfortunately for city staff, funding requests from city departments and other entities the city funds came in at $20.1 million.
That left approximately $1.7 million in requests that had to be cut to meet the projected revenues.
Preliminary budget numbers presented to council from interim City Manager Clay Goodman and Director of Finance B.B. Bryant were not finalized Tuesday, although the cuts they made resulted in a proposed balanced budget — a budget balanced by cuts to funding requests, and not by using money from the city’s unappropriated general fund.
There was also no request for a fee or tax increase in the 2019-2020 budget.
No city department was spared the budgetary knife, with the Covington City School System experiencing the biggest cut in requested funding — $406,501 cut from its original $5.2 request in local funding.
A total of $370,058 was cut from public safety, which includes a $107,000 cut from a $321,000 request from the Alleghany County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services.
The $214,000 proposed allocation for the sheriff’s office is almost $30,000 below what was approved in the current budget.
A $47,000 increase in funding to the Alleghany Regional Jail was included in preliminary budget numbers.
Only two funded entities were spared cuts to its funding request.
Joint judicial services provided along with Alleghany County — which include Circuit and General District Court, the magistrate’s office, clerk of Circuit Court’s office, sheriff’s department court services and the commonwealth’s attorney’s office — were spared the type of cuts incurred in other city-funded arenas, with their requests for 2019-2020 level with what was appropriated in the current budget.
Area economic development initiatives also saw an increase in funding, as an additional $40,000 has been proposed for the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Corporation.
The increase in funding is a result of the AHEDC experiencing a reduction in operating grant proceeds from The Alleghany Foundation.
Other cuts were seen in the Covington Public Works Department ($343,650) and Covington Parks and Recreation Department ($284,500).
Although several vehicle requests were made from city departments — including new police cars, a new fire truck, new vehicles for public works and a new light crash truck for the Covington Rescue Squad — none were funded in the budget proposed Tuesday evening.
Covington City Council will be presented the budget officially during its work session on May 7.
From there, council will be able to make any adjustments it sees fit.
The 2019-2020 budget must be approved no later than June 30.
The new fiscal year begins July 1.
