GLASGOW — Glasgow officials are experiencing the same budgetary concerns as many national and state leaders – how to meet increasing demands for local needs and services while operating on decreasing revenues during an economic recession.

The Glasgow City Council gave final approval to the annual fiscal budget for July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010, at Monday night’s council meeting.

It is a budget that called for department heads to find ways to initially cut 15 percent from each of their individual budgets and left Mayor Darrell Pickett and Sheila Oliver, city clerk/administrator, still looking at a $2 million gap to fill between expenditures and revenue shortfall.

“There are no major purchases for any department with this budget,” Pickett said.

“Basically, the only increase in anybody’s budget was with the insurance and the retirement went up,” Oliver said. “Everything else, pretty much, we cut out. There’s no new vehicles. Like with a fire hose, if it’s not busted, don’t buy a new one.”

The city’s budget is divided into 14 different funds, the greatest of which is the General Fund. It is the largest revenue-producing fund and expenditures such as departmental salaries, operational expenses and capital outlay and projects come out of it.

The carryover balance in the General Fund from the 2008-09 budget was $4,953,516. Estimated revenue in the 2009-10 budget is $11,360,903 and estimated expense is $13,354,956 leaving a projected balance of $2,959,463, this a decrease in the carryover amount of approximately $2 million from the previous year, which was just under $5 million and down from more than $6 million in the 2007-08 budget.

The mayor, council members and city employees will not receive salary increases in the new budget due to the projected economic shortfalls in revenue, according to Pickett’s budget message.

“We didn’t give city employees any increase in pay. I hope that they understand the economic times we are in and the people in this community are losing their jobs and have no jobs,” he said.

The good news for city workers is health and dental insurance and retirement benefits were not cut and the city does not plan any employee layoffs.

“Many Kentucky cities have been forced to lay off employees and drop services,” the mayor noted. “Our goal for Glasgow is to continue operations as is.”

The percentage the city pays for retirement costs increased for non-hazardous employees from 13.50 to 16.16 percent and for hazardous duty employees from 29.50 to 32.97 percent. Health insurance increased by 6.5 percent and dental insurance by 3 percent, according to the mayor.

“We were fortunate as our general liability insurance and worker’s compensation stayed the same,” Pickett reported.

The other 13 funds include the Capital Project Fund —Trojan Trail, which was budgeted for more than $2 million dollars and funded by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in the previous budget to widen and improve Trojan Trail. It was scheduled for completion before June 30 of this year and so will not be funded in the new budget.

The Glasgow Housing Loan Fund — Tartan Glen has met the original grant requirements for 18 projects and will be closed. The fund had a balance of $90,677 that will be transferred to the General Fund.

The Renaissance/Grant Department fund is budgeted to increase by $500 for a projected balance of $1,520 at the end of the fiscal year. The Dickinson-Greer House was renovated through a grant in the fund that is now closed and the city has put the property up for sale.

The Municipal Road Aid Fund is budgeted for $228,000 in revenue and $302,741 in expenditures in the new budget, leaving a projected carryover balance of $35,931. Road and sidewalk projects will be completed from this fund. The ending balance in 2008 was $178,958 and estimated at $110,672 for the June 30, 2009, budget end.

The fund for the Myrtle Street project will be closed in the current budget and will carry a $0 balance.

The Kentucky Revolving Loan Fund that the city uses to loan businesses and industry money to create new jobs is budgeted for revenues of $7,200 and expenses of $300,000 leaving a projected balance of $640,574 down from $933,374 from the previous budget and down $1.4 million in the 2007-08 budget.

The KLEFPF Fund is used for supplemental hazardous duty pay for police and fire personnel and allows $3,100 per employee. This fund remains relatively stable from year to year with $327,583 in revenue, $325,759 in expenses and a balance of $33,803 projected in the new budget.

The Glasgow Economic Development Loan Fund is also used to grant loans to businesses and industries. Projected revenue is $83,334, expense, $300,000, with a balance of $743,278.

Municipal Cemetery and Perpetual Upkeep funds are estimated to have revenues of $125,000 and $5,000 respectively; expenditures of $233,565 and $3,000; and balances of $17,297 and $597,931.

The Sanitation and Landfill Fund has projected revenue of $2.78 million, down from $3 million the previous year; expenses of $3.49 million down from $3.87 million; and a balance of $3 million down from $3.73 million. The city has just opened a new cell in the landfill, the mayor reported.

The Closure/Post Closure Fund, which was created to fund the closing of the present landfill site when it reaches full capacity, will increase by $320,000 to just less than $4 million.

As much as has already been cut from the budget, the mayor is still talking about more reductions. City revenue is down by more than $1 million due to the loss of payroll and sales taxes from jobs being lost and businesses having decreased profits. Property devaluation also means less money coming into the city’s coffers from property taxes.

“For us to keep our heads above water for next year’s budget, there’ll probably be some more trimmings,” Pickett said.

He is requiring monthly meetings with department heads looking for ways to save money.

The council passed a resolution Monday night authorizing department heads to generate surplus property lists and to sell any surplus they can.

“The finance committee is going to start meeting with every department head on a monthly basis ... and we’ll probably see even some more cuts because we’re doing to trim it down. We’re going to ask the department heads if they’ve got something there, is it an absolute necessity. Do we have to have this or can make out (without it). We’re still going to continue to tighten down even though we passed the budget tonight,” Pickett said.

“That starts with my department on down. We’ll probably trim a little more, because we’ve got to and of course,” he said, “I think if we don’t lose any more revenue that we’ve got we can be good for another year, maybe, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Those predictions – we see it in our gasoline ­– we thought we were doing better for a while, but now it’s gone back up, so that’s put a hurt back on our budget again.”