City looking at service providers
Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
As the city prepares to approve the fiscal year 2020 budget, Mayor Deb Piana has suggested that the Newcastle City Council consider cutting all service provider funds by 10% during a financial committee meeting on June 3. While the council suggested that the cut not take place this year, Piana stressed the need for council members to look more closely at the budgets of service provider, third party entities that provide services to the community, and consider the cuts in the fiscal 2021 budget.
“I think we are struggling, and everyone is cutting back. We continue to give the same, and we are not getting the same in revenue,” Piana told the council during the committee meeting. “Our income has not increased. We do not get consensus money, and we do not get grocery tax.”
City Clerk-Treasurer Greg James said that the service providers have not been given any increases in the past five to six years.
“The funds for the service providers are not promised, but they generally are taken out of the one-cent optional tax, which is voted on,” James said.
Piana said that the tax is not a “for sure thing” and that last year’s vote on the tax was close, proving that the city cannot rely on those funds.
“We can’t count on it, and the information that we provide to the service organizations is that without that 1%, there would be zero dollars for them,” James said.
Piana suggested cutting 10% from all service providers that received 1% option funds. She said that she is unsure how the city funds are being used by the individual organizations within their annual budgets.
“I understand what you are saying, but there could be negative political ramifications,” James said.
“I am not worried about politics. I am worried about the bottom line. The money is going to have to start being cut from somewhere, and our streets are terrible,” Piana said.
Council member Ann McColley estimated cutting the service providers’ funds by 10% would give the city an additional $18,800 toward the upcoming year’s budget. She asked whether the city could guarantee that those funds would go to street repairs.
“We certainly could, but it would not do much,” James said. The city has already budgeted more toward street repairs in the upcoming budget, he said.
Piana said that the city needs the money, even if it is only a small amount.
“I think we need to be more responsible. It seems that everything is the same every year. Everything stays the same, and no one questions it. We just approve it and done,” Piana said. “I think we need to look at it seriously. Things are not getting better, revenue in taxes is not getting better, and we are not getting consensus money. I think we need to be fiscally responsible. We have bad streets and employees that haven’t been given raises.”
Council member Roger Hespe, who as owner of Newcastle Ambulance Service is also a service provider, said that he believes all the service providers are important to the community and that if the cuts were to happen, he is glad they would be across the board.
“That makes it easier but I know the struggles of some of these places,” Hespe said. “It is not easy.”
McColley said that it is never easy to make cuts.
“I’m going to tell you how I feel. I appreciate the support and I appreciate if for all the people it helps in the community, but it something we would have to deal with,” Hespe said.
McColley then asked whether the cut would seriously affect some providers.
“I can speak for two of them: the Weston County Children’s Center and Northern Wyoming Mental Health. I feel it would be a real hardship for them,” James said.
McColley said that while she would “stick up” for mental health, she believed that the children’s center could get the money in other ways.
According to Piana, a 10% cut would amount to $900 for the children’s center and $650 for mental health. She asked whether those amounts would really hurt them.
James said that given the current financial situation at those places, he believes it would. Council member Michael Alexander agreed with James.
“So we are just supposed to support everybody?” Piana asked.
Council member Pam Gualtieri said that while she could see the cut affecting the providers, she thinks that they could find other sources for the money.
“I am part of the chamber, and the chamber is going to get cut as part of this. The chamber has little revenue, but I find myself thinking what fundraisers we would have to do to make up those funds,” Gualtieri said.
Piana and Gualtieri also spoke about the lack of specific budget information provided by the service providers regarding the revenue they receive. Gualtieri specifically mentioned that the Weston County Senior Center does not include all its revenue sources in the information it provides to the city.
Alexander said he would prefer cutting funds already promised to City Engineer Mike Moore for radio read meters. He said that the funds to the service providers are more prudent, in his opinion.
“I think we are better off taking a closer look earlier next year,” James said.
Piana agreed and said the city should request more detailed revenue and expense information from the providers.
“I just think that for so long, for so many years, everything has been the same,” Piana said. “It gets passed around without really looking into it.”
Piana proposed that the city start earlier on the budget process next year if the council “feels it is too late to do cuts” this year.
James said that next year the council can request more information and take a closer look at how the money is spent.
“The trend has been this way for the last 10 years, and it is not getting better. It is not getting especially worse, but things are not getting better,” James said.