It’s
that time of year again for the Greeley City Council. Budget appropriations for
the fiscal year of 2013 were discussed tonight and the city will begin making
adjustments within the next few weeks to compensate the new and improved
budget.
The council concluded that the
budget, like always, will be followed as close as possible in order to keep the
city moving forward and away from debt.
“The challenge for the city is
balance,” said councilmember, Donna Sapienza. “We will push programs we want to
see that help to create less spending. I appreciate employees’ efforts to propel
us forward to better times.”
One of the main concerns about the
2013 budget, which was voiced by councilmember Mike Finn, is increased salaries
and benefits that Greeley employees will receive. Both are planning on
increasing to award Greeley’s hard working employees. The slight increase of
salaries and adding spending for health insurance and work compensation is predicted to
make a small but beneficial change.
“The increase is justified by the
negotiations between the union and general employees,” Finn said. “To get the
city in balance, I agree with these increases.”
After concerns about salary and
benefit increases, the public was invited forward to voice personal concerns.
After a couple of reassurances from the council, the budget moved
forward to approval. The fact that Greeley’s population is on the rise played a huge factor
in the budget. Greeley Finance Director, Lezlie Philp, along with help from
city employees, was able to accommodate Greeley’s needs and formulate a financial
plan with high hopes of improvement for the community.
“The budget is definitely a tedious task,”
said John Gates, Mayor Pro Tem. “We look forward to looking at the 2014 budget
in 6-7 months.”
Talks of the 2014 budget has
council-members laughing now, but let’s just wait and see how the 2013 budget
does first – it’s coming faster than we know
No comments:
Post a Comment