OC will offset low revenue with cuts
Public safety will be hit the hardest
OCEAN CITY -- A proposed Ocean City budget continues the trend of recent years by matching lower revenue with lower expenditures.
City Manager Dennis Dare proposed a $73.6 million budget that includes less spending for each of the city's general fund categories, with the exception of a slight increase of about $50,000 in debt service.
That increase is due to a potential bond issue for the Boardwalk reconstruction project, according to Budget Manager Jennie Knapp. For a third consecutive year, the budget does not include a pay raise for employees.
The largest proposed cut slices more than $1 million from public safety expenditures compared to last year. Knapp said the largest cut comes from the absence of federal homeland security grants the police department usually receives. Those funds aren't shown on the budget proposal but are added to the budget as they're received.
The public safety departments were also able to cut some of their expenditures through personnel changes. In many instances, retiring employees were replaced by younger workers who, because of their lack of seniority, are paid less than their position's previous holder, Knapp said.
"That has been part of (Dare's) plan," Knapp said. "There's a lot of savings, and this is the first year we've actually seen those savings."
The proposed budget anticipates revenue that is down about one percent from 2011 and more than four percent from 2010.
Proposed spending is about $69.8 million, down about three percent and seven percent from 2011 and 2010, respectively. Some $3.8 million -- about five percent -- of revenue not spent in the general budget will go to enterprise funds that are not self-supporting. They include the airport, transportation, capital projects and Roland E. Powell Convention Center funds.
Ocean City Council President Jim Hall asked if there were any jobs full-time employees were taking on that could be "subbed out" to nonresort entities for a cheaper price. An example he gave could be a company or individuals willing to clean out bus interiors during the summer, when the service is needed the most.
"There might be somebody out there who's willing to do that for a cheap price, and then we don't need them in the winter and won't have to pay benefits and those sorts of things," Hall said. "I really want to try and get something like that into all these departments."
The proposed budget keeps the town's tax rate at 39.5 cents, and a slight drop in the net assessable real estate property tax base, from $10.3 billion to $10.28 billion.
Included in the budget is a figure of more than $600,000 as expected funds from the city's share of slot revenue from the Casino at Ocean Downs. Dare wrote in a letter to the council that the money could be used to pave roadways and conduct storm drain repairs.
City Manager Dennis Dare proposed a $73.6 million budget that includes less spending for each of the city's general fund categories, with the exception of a slight increase of about $50,000 in debt service.
That increase is due to a potential bond issue for the Boardwalk reconstruction project, according to Budget Manager Jennie Knapp. For a third consecutive year, the budget does not include a pay raise for employees.
The largest proposed cut slices more than $1 million from public safety expenditures compared to last year. Knapp said the largest cut comes from the absence of federal homeland security grants the police department usually receives. Those funds aren't shown on the budget proposal but are added to the budget as they're received.
The public safety departments were also able to cut some of their expenditures through personnel changes. In many instances, retiring employees were replaced by younger workers who, because of their lack of seniority, are paid less than their position's previous holder, Knapp said.
"That has been part of (Dare's) plan," Knapp said. "There's a lot of savings, and this is the first year we've actually seen those savings."
The proposed budget anticipates revenue that is down about one percent from 2011 and more than four percent from 2010.
Proposed spending is about $69.8 million, down about three percent and seven percent from 2011 and 2010, respectively. Some $3.8 million -- about five percent -- of revenue not spent in the general budget will go to enterprise funds that are not self-supporting. They include the airport, transportation, capital projects and Roland E. Powell Convention Center funds.
Ocean City Council President Jim Hall asked if there were any jobs full-time employees were taking on that could be "subbed out" to nonresort entities for a cheaper price. An example he gave could be a company or individuals willing to clean out bus interiors during the summer, when the service is needed the most.
"There might be somebody out there who's willing to do that for a cheap price, and then we don't need them in the winter and won't have to pay benefits and those sorts of things," Hall said. "I really want to try and get something like that into all these departments."
The proposed budget keeps the town's tax rate at 39.5 cents, and a slight drop in the net assessable real estate property tax base, from $10.3 billion to $10.28 billion.
Included in the budget is a figure of more than $600,000 as expected funds from the city's share of slot revenue from the Casino at Ocean Downs. Dare wrote in a letter to the council that the money could be used to pave roadways and conduct storm drain repairs.
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