Published: October 28, 2009 11:08 pm      

Jeffersonville Council signs off on 2010 budget

Council gets it finished a few days before state deadline

The Jeffersonville City Council gave final approval to a 2010 budget Wednesday night.

The budget was approved just a few days before a Nov. 1 deadline imposed by the state’s Department of Local Government Finance.

As accepted, it will use approximately $25.2 million in local property taxes, according to Councilman Ron Grooms, who heads the city’s Budget and Finance Committee. For comparison’s sake, the 2009 budget used about $23.1 million in local property taxes.

The biggest change was a 60 percent increase in the amount of money going to the city engineer, which rose from $168,490 in 2009 to $270,374 in 2010. Grooms and Deputy Clerk Treasurer Suzy Bass noted the money was transferred to the engineer’s office from an annexation fund to cover the cost of an assistant engineer.

The budget for the city’s animal shelter dropped $45,000, a 12 percent decrease. Grooms said that was explainable because an animal control officer who had been funded in 2009 was never hired, so the money set aside for the officer’s salary was removed in the 2010 budget.

The city hall building fund rose by $48,831, a 14 percent increase. Grooms said that change was due to rising costs of utilities and increasing allotments to cover maintenance and janitorial services for the building.

In other business:

• Grooms noted the city will be able to raise about $1.2 million more than initially expected because of a change in the Department of Local Government Finance’s interpretation of the city’s maximum tax levy.

• The council voted to remove the city’s code enforcement officers from the Building Commissioner’s budget to the Department of Planning and Zoning’s budget.

• The council voted to increase it’s own budget for special projects and promotion by about $85,000 each.

“We cut that back over the years to bare bones,” said Grooms. “We’re going to get some of that back.”

Councilman Nathan Samuel said he had uses for the money. Councilman Mike Smith indicated the same. Nothing was decided on how the money would be used.









JEFFERSONVILLE BUDGET AT A GLANCE

Department — 2010 — 2009 — Change

Mayor — $396,685 — $412,474 — -4 percent

Clerk-Treasurer — $384,923 — $374,634 — 3 percent

Court — $202,664 — $230,786 — -12 percent

Engineer — $270,374 — $168,490 — 60 percent

Police — $5.33 million — $5.206 million — 2 percent

Fire — $5.440 million — $5.525 million — -2 percent

Building Com — $551,889 — $579,374 — -5 percent

Planning & Zoning — $288,415 — $276,476 — 4 percent

City Council — $3.522 million — $3.660 million — 5 percent

Animal Shelter — $350,150 — $395,739 — -12 percent

Vehicle Main. — $1.066 million — $1.098 million — -3 percent

Info Tech — $175,233 — $169,786 — 3 percent

Human Resources — $167,215 — $158,726 — 5 percent

City Hall — $390,431 — $341,600 — 14 percent

Board Public Works — $319,268 — $337,580 — -5 percent

Parks — $2.117 million — $2.055 million — 3 percent

Sanitation —  $1.789 million —  $1.848 million —  -3 percent

Cum Cap Dev — $233,550 — $225,000 —  4 percent

Local Roads — $1.275 million — $1.228 million — 4 percent

Motor Vehicles —  $1.788 million —  $1.873 million — -5 percent