With final tweaks still to come, Monterey Aldermen passed the new fiscal year budget on first and second reading Monday night.
Monterey Mayor Alex Garcia said officials closely examined bills in many areas and found some areas of savings. As for rates the town charges, the Finance Committee has been looking at raising garbage rates by 50 percent to help the sanitation department become self-sustaining. Finance Committee Chairman Jamie Phillips.
“We decided not to go up that much,” Phillips said. “We proposed doing a 40 percent increase in the garbage rates, which would balance the general fund budget, but the sanitation and solid waste would still need to be supplemented a little bit.”
Phillips said the town will not raise water and sewer rates even though the departments are not self-sustaining. Phillips said it would have taken a large rate increase to make up the deficit.
“We decided to use the reserve funds that we have because we got a pretty hefty reserve fund, and so we can utilize those for at least partially this year while we wait and see if somebody moves into Perdue,” Phillips said. “If not, it’s not gonna hurt us terribly bad, but we do have those emergency funds there.”
Monterey Mayor Alex Garcia said the budget is not final, as there are still some tweaks that need to be made to the budget.
“We looked at a lot of the bills, a lot of things that we have already purchased or been paying,” Phillips said. “The mayor has been spearheading a lot of that, looking at areas such as the telephone. Like, we have paid a lot of money that we could save in telephone bills and just maintenance plans for technological equipment, computers, monitors, things like that, that were unnecessary, that we have just been paying and haven’t really noticed it.”
Phillips said the budget has a two percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees. Phillips said the budget also will not change health insurance for employees.
The Aldermen also approved keeping the property tax rate at $1.39 per $100 of assessed value.
Phillips said he hopes to have a budget ready for final approval by June’s meeting. The Finance Committee will meet again on Tuesday, May 13 at 6pm at the Monterey Municipal Building.
In other business, the aldermen approved the third reading on an ordinance regarding the changes to park rules and regulations.
Monterey Police Chief John Mackie honored officers Blake Bennett and Dylan Durham for their efforts in saving an individual’s life. The officers installed a tourniquet on an individual who had lost their arm due to an equipment accident.
Garcia announced that the police department will be receiving new uniform patches.
