Chattanooga: Officials uncertain on cuts for now

A day after saying there was “no doubt” the city would have to cut expenditures, Mayor Ron Littlefield’s Chief of Staff Dan Johnson backed off the statement Wednesday.

City officials still are awaiting December’s sales tax revenues, which are expected to come in next week, Mr. Johnson said.

“We’ll look at it then and see if our position is still in a safe territory before we start implementing anything we may have been considering,” he said. “We don’t have anything concrete yet. We’re not to that decision point.”

City officials have monitored sales tax revenue collections since the fall, Mr. Johnson said Wednesday. Both the local sales tax and state tax revenue collections have been falling short, city records show.

At a City Council meeting Tuesday, Mr. Johnson told the council: “We will be coming to you with some cuts. There’s no question about that.”

Mayor Ron Littlefield asked all department heads in November to develop contingency plans that could show up to 5 percent cuts in their budgets. A 5 percent cut would mean slicing $8.5 million from this year’s $170 million operating budget.

Not all department head contingency plans have been turned in, Mr. Johnson said, and at this point they are “only suggestions.” The suggestions run anywhere from “shutting down programs to a reduction in force,” he said.

The city already has started incremental changes such as encouraging no idling of city vehicles and also leaving some empty positions unfilled.

Public Works Administrator Steve Leach said his department has looked at a variety of options to save money.

Public Works officials said some of their suggestions included eliminating or limiting training and travel, limiting overtime, instituting a hiring freeze and looking at cutting wages. Mr. Leach said some or all of the suggestions could be incorporated, depending upon the severity of cuts that city leaders say are needed.

“We’re not going to do anything that’s not done citywide,” he said.

Council Chairwoman Linda Bennett said Wednesday she talked to city staff Tuesday night and was told the city now was OK financially. But she said she wants to continue to hear from City Hall about expenses.

“We don’t want to alarm people,” she said. “But there are people losing jobs and homes every day.”

Councilman Jack Benson said if cuts do not happen in the immediate future, then the budget could be slashed by next fiscal year. The council’s budget hearings begin Jan. 22.

“This year, I get a sense from the council that we don’t need to be reactive,” he said. “I feel like the council’s going to take more initiative than ever before.”