THOMASVILLE — The Cairo City Council has adopted its fiscal year 2011 budget.

The council held a 6 p.m. called meeting Tuesday for final adoption of its budget ordinance. It approved, 3-0, a total budget for FY11 of $35,810,204.

"I think we have a good budget and a lot of things budgeted for capital outlay," Councilman Jimmy Douglas said Wednesday. "There are no tax increases or pay raises projected at this point in time.

"We do hope to be able to take another look at pay raises around halfway through our budget year, which would be Jan. 1, 2011."

Councilman Kermit Gillard said it "would be nice to give people a raise” because the city appreciates what its employees do, but "the money is not there at this time."

"Unfortunately, it seems to be that way in most sectors right now,” he said Wednesday.

The budget process picked up in February, when the city began its strategic planning sessions to get long-term goals and priorities in place. This was followed by department head budget presentations and council budget workshops in March and April, and a public hearing in May.

“I think that our city manager and department heads did a good job of only recommending things absolutely needed,” Gilliard said. “I think we’d like to do more — several agencies have asked for help — and we would like to provide more, but at this time we did not feel it was the thing to do to raise rates or millage in order to provide extra with the economy the way it is.”

The only rate projected to change is water, which is switching to a conservation-type rate, officials said. This means those customers that use less water may see a decrease in their bill while those that use more may see an increase (for more on this, see an upcoming edition).

One item previously unclear was the expected increase for employee health care insurance.

Gilliard said insurance did go up via employee deductible, which increased by about $250, but it did not go up as much as staff was told it might.

Priorities in this year’s budget include an approximately $5.5 million capital outlay plan for items such as $2 million for a new water well and water plant and $1 million for a new elevated water tank.

The council approved the go ahead to take bids on portions of the water project at its Monday meeting.

“I think this is the most important project we have in the budget this year,” Gilliard said. “I think it is critical to the city and its water system.”

Douglas agreed the overall water project is an important issue.

"We've been talking about it for the five years I've been on the council and longer than that," he said. "We need to get our water supply taken care of."

 

*Council members Ernest Cloud and Bobby Gwaltney and Mayor Richard VanLandingham were not present at the meeting.