Proposed Greensboro budget includes $4.3 million in cuts

Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth proposed a $459 million budget for fiscal year 2013-2014, which includes $4.3 million in budget cuts. The largest decreases would come from infrastructure funding and citywide reductions including a reducing the city's contract with Lankford Security.

From the press release:   "Included are budget reductions of $1,043,194 in infrastructure, $982,244 in public safety, $715,762 in culture, recreation and community character, and $227,569 in general government. In addition, 14 full-time equivalent positions would be eliminated under the proposal, with no impact on sworn employees, and another $2,350,201 in organization-wide reductions."

The budget does include some increased spending as well: "$40,519 is proposed for additional resources for code enforcement and inspections, and first-year funding of $70,000 for a newly proposed Office of Accountability."

The proposed budget would also "eliminate funding for the  Greensboro Youth Council Carnival" and "supplemental pay for worker’s compensation, reducing the level the City pays to the state mandated amount" and would "transfer ownership of War Memorial Stadium to NC A&T State University."

The press release does not mention participatory budgeting, which some residents have been encouraging council to adopt and that several council members have said they supported looking into.

Council will hold a public hearing on the budget at its June 4 meeting and will vote on it at its June 18 meeting. The city will post the full budget at www.greensboro-nc.gov/recommendedbudget by noon on Wednesday. 

This week's IFYI report

Here is this week's IFYI report from the Greensboro city manager's office. The report is out a day early because Good Friday is tomorrow.

It includes information about the South Elm Street Redevelopment, meetings to gather input on the public-information request process, MWBE contracting and the city's legislative agenda with the NC General Assembly.

Greensboro blogging staple Ed Cone used to post these, and during his hiatus from updating his site, we plan to post the IFYI report here for folks to easily peruse when there is information or material in it that we think will be of public interest. If you want to read it every week in full, you can subscribe to the city manager's distribution list like we do.

Here's some pull out information if you don't want to read through it all yourself: 

-The plan for the South Elm Street Redevelopment project includes a 500 space parking deck and more than 210 apartments in phase one. 

-The project has an anticipated completion date of 2025 and appears to include a second 500 space parking deck in phase 3 followed by a 150 room hotel.

-The total anticipated investment for the project is $81.7 million, including $11 million of public funds.

-The city will host two meetings about public records, one aimed at journalists and bloggers and the other at the general public, on April 8-9.

-The city is looking at a Small Business Enterprise Program aimed at increasing contracting opportunities for minority and women owned businesses through several potential methods.

-A state senate bill could create a $16.8 million budget shortfall for the city if passed — the goal of the legislation is to decrease taxes. 

-There are several other legislative items of relevance highlighted in the document, including a House Bill 299 entitled "Law Enforcement Fairness Act" that would create a "quasi-judicial board for each municipality to review dismissals and grievances by law enforcement officers."