The upcoming budget for Huntington.

Dave Traube

The upcoming budget for Huntington

The amount of money the city of Huntington has, and where that money will go, was outlined in the latest budget proposal by Mayor Kim Wolfe.

The proposed 2010-2011 budget projects a total of $39,542,739 of income, with the largest sources being the business and occupation tax, municipal service fee, city service fee and property tax.

Wolfe noted that some sources of revenue will be on the rise, such as the property tax and city service fee, and that these are necessary revenues to keep Huntington a solvent, healthy community.

“Although these are challenging economic times, we have an opportunity to reshape how we do business and provide services,” said Wolfe. “It is incumbent upon us and the administrative staff to focus beyond short term results.”

The proposed budget is down from past years. In 2009, the city projected $44,618,876 in expenditures and in 2008 about $41,217,850. The proposed budget’s decrease to about $39,500,00 was due to the fact that only around $40,000,000 was actually collected and spent in each of the last two years.

The proposed budgets for individual departments were released, as well. Almost every city department shows a decrease, totaling over five million dollars, in contrasting the proposed budget with the estimates of the year before. The money the city is on track to spend this year, however, shows that the decrease in the proposed budget is only about $800,000.

Wolfe spoke in last year’s State of the City address about the need for more law enforcement in Huntington. Despite a decrease of $850,000 from last year’s budgeted amount for the department, the difference is only about $150,000 off what the department is slated to spend in the current year.

“In the budget as proposed for the upcoming fiscal year we have included the hiring of four additional officers and three new cruisers,” Wolfe said in 2009. “These officers will provide additional assets to enhance our patrol effectiveness and strengthen our community oriented policing.”

Flash forward a year and the proposed budget cuts could have an impact on Wolfe’s initial plans to strengthen civil service employees.

“Elimination and layoffs of civilian positions within our police and fire departments will cause sworn personnel to be moved to some administrative positions,” Wolfe revealed. “(This) will reduce the first responders’ level of service, (but) working together with council we will meet the challenge this poses to our community.”

Wolfe remarked in his address that all the budget decreases make practical sense for the city and cautioned public patience with ironing out the details of the budget.

“There are so many significant accomplishments that we have made together this last year,” Wolfe said. “Turning back and returning to the status quo is not an option.”