Published: October 11, 2008 06:36 pm      

New Albany City Council meeting Monday over $1.3M shortfall

The New Albany City Council will hold a special meeting Monday ahead of an Oct. 17 deadline to reduce the city’s budget by $1.3 million.

“Frankly we don’t have a lot of options because we’re so far along into the year, we’re talking about money we’ve already spent,” Council President Jeff Gahan said.

The council will likely have to shift rainy day funds to cover the reduction which was ordered by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.

Cutbacks were issued to the sum of $600,000 in the general fund and $700,000 in the street department.

The $1.3 million has bigger implications than just the current budget.

The council recently agreed to freeze next year’s budget at 2008 levels. The ordered reduction means some juggling will have to be done for the 2009 budget to meet state guidelines.

Gahan said the council will tackle that issue along with the Oct. 17 mandate during the meeting — which will be at 4 p.m. in the third floor assembly room of the City/County Building.

“We’re going to have to make the reductions {in the 2009 budget} as well,” Gahan said.

The council faces a deadline of Dec. 1 for submitting its 2009 budget for certification.

To meet that time restraint, the council is scheduled to pass next year’s budget on first reading Thursday during its regular meeting when they will also hold a public hearing.

Gahan said the passed version will have to be amended before Dec. 1 to include the $1.3 million in reductions.

“We’re going to have to have another hearing at some point during those discussions. You will see brainstorming as to how we can come up with these $1.3 million reductions,” Gahan said.

“It doesn’t appear we’re going to have the rainy day funds (for next year) to take care of that.”

Budgets require passage on three votes by the council and a public hearing. The state had extended its deadline to December for submitting budgets due to laggard responses for alerting municipalities and counties if their 2008 fiscal plans were approved.

Gahan points to slow economic times in the state and lowered tax rollbacks as reason for the shortfall in New Albany’s budget.

“It could be a lot worse. There are larger cities and smaller cities throughout the state that have to take a lot more money out of their budgets than we do,” he said.

But Gahan, like Mayor Doug England, said the reductions would have been easier to cope with if the state had alerted them earlier in the year.

“That is frustrating,” England told The Tribune recently. “I don’t know why it takes {the state} so long.”