Chattanooga officials say the City Council can expect to see a “tight budget” Tuesday when Mayor Andy Berke’s staff presents his proposed 2016 spending plan.
Although he didn’t share details ahead of the City Council presentation, Brent Goldberg, Berke’s chief operating officer, said Friday the $221 million proposed budget grew by $4 million, or 1.9 percent, over the current $217 million budget. And that’s with no proposed tax increase and cuts across nearly every department.
“It’s a tight budget; with us going into the year with more costs than revenue growth, we had to make some decisions in our departments,” Goldberg said.
Health insurance and pensions were the big drivers of increased costs — the Police and Fire Pension Fund cost alone increased by about $2.5 million over the current year, Goldberg said.
Those cost hikes were expected, so Berke is planning to freeze vacant positions and cut other costs in virtually every department except police and fire, Goldberg said.
But there are some increases built in, too.
The proposed budget includes a raise for nearly every city employee, and it will have an increase to the city’s paving budget, Goldberg said.
That makes Councilman Ken Smith very happy. Smith leads the council’s Transportation Committee.
“I want to see, at the very least, the same amount of funds we saw in the paving budget this year,” Smith said. “All nine council members have problem areas when it comes to paving, and we need to be focused on prioritizing them and getting them taken care of.”
The administration also is planning to bolster services for low- income residents.
Goldberg said the budget included a plan to offer no-cost summer camp for children who qualify for Title 1 funding. Qualifying children will pay for the summer camp scholarship that’s currently available, then their tuition will be refunded once they complete the camp, he said.
The budget also includes an expanded after-school and summer meals program or children through a grant that allows the city to offer hot meals to children year-round.
And Berke is planning to invest more than $1 million in improvements at all the city-owned Youth and Family Development Centers, put $200,000 more into its Take Tech Home program and put another $3 million toward the Family Justice Center.
City Councilman Chris Anderson, who leads the Economic and Community Development Committee and is vice chairman for the budget committee, said he is glad to see the city investing in the community.
“The YFD centers, a lot of them are very old. They were build many years ago, and all of them are in need of repair,” Anderson said. “We are putting money into repairs for every YFD center in the city, and that’s money that we are actually spending on people.”
The city is also planning to pour about $1 million into the police department to buy in-car cameras and laptops, global positioning systems and about 40 body cameras to start a local pilot program for the devices.
The budget also includes a 9.8 percent increase in the city’s sewer rate.
This is part of the consent decree it has with the federal government to upgrade its sewer systems. The average sewer bill will increase by $3, Goldberg said.
Council members will hear the presentation on Tuesday, but the first reading of the budget will be held June 16.
Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.