City Council members talked cuts Tuesday afternoon during a special called meeting on the city’s budget.
Some of them were major.
“We have a responsibility to dig and dig deep,” Councilwoman Deborah Scott told council members. “We need to come up with a budget we can afford, not what we want.”
Council members talked for an hour about department budgets, and three council members proposed a series of cuts to help trim a proposed property tax increase by Mayor Ron Littlefield. Councilwoman Deborah Scott suggested the most major trims, saying the city should look at shuttering Memorial Auditorium, cutting Outdoor Chattanooga, combining the Department of Parks and Recreation with the Department of Arts, Education & Culture and selling the Chattanoogan hotel.
Mr. Littlefield said afterward he realized the council was “coming to grips” with the fact there is no easy way to cut the city’s budget. He said closing Memorial Auditorium was a “little extreme,” and it would be hard to sell the Chattanoogan in the current economic climate.