Budget time approaches for cities
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 28, 2004
At presstime Tuesday, Columbiana, Alabaster,
Vincent, Wilsonville and Wilton have not approved new budgets for the 2005 fiscal year.
According to city officials, towns can operate under their existing budgets until a new one is approved. The most common reason given for not having a new budget in place at this point is to allow them to be completed by the next administration.
However, Harpersville, Westover and Montevallo have new budgets already in place.
Harpersville approved a town budget with projected revenues of $482,000 and expenses of $407,230. The council also approved a police department budget with projected revenues of $500,000 and expenses of $378,466.
The town of Westover recently approved its 2005 budget with a total income of $77,650 and total expenses of $56,374.44, leaving the town with excess revenues of $21,275.56.
The largest projected sources of income are sales and use taxes at $40,000 and Alabama Power Privilege License at $23,000.
The largest projected expenses are debt retirement at $7,144.44, capital expenditures-general at $15,000 and salaries at $8,400.
The city of Montevallo approved a balanced budget with $3.31 million in total revenues and expenses including a reserve for capital contingencies of $228,743.
The largest source of income is sales tax at $1.350 million and the largest salary expense is that of Police Department at $818,671.
While the council did not include an amount for The American Village, Council members expressed the will, if they could find a way.
Tom Walker of The American Village presented a request to the council for a investment of $300,000 over the next 10,12 or 15 years to help the attraction
draw a quarter million visitors per year.
Walker said the city of Pelham has committed to invest $400,000 in the facility.
Walker said plans call for a reproduction of the first White House and a visitor center by the year 2006. He also spoke of the need for the facility to offer other services such as food and lodging