The national economic slump hasn’t helped St. Robert, but City Administrator Norman Herren said sales tax revenues continue to be strong and he expects no surprises at the end of the fiscal year.
Cost-saving measures by city staff have helped, Herren said.
“We are supposed to be at 68 percent of budget, but if you look at the Department of Public Works budget items, they are consistently at 50 percent figures. They have really held the line,” Herren said.
Similar reports were made about many other budget line items.
“The only area where we are behind is the court budget,” Herren said, noting that revenues are at about 50 percent of what was expected for the year when they should be at two-thirds.
“There are going to have to be some adjustments because I know we can’t make all that up before the end of the year,” Herren said. “Our standard procedure is we keep track of these figures each month and make adjustments. (Finance director) Edna (Givens) and I make adjustments on almost a monthly basis.”
Alderman Allan Johannsen asked for a month-by-month report on sales tax receipts, Givens printed that off and provided it to committee members.
While the city isn’t in any serious financial trouble, Herren said regular increases in the cost of health insurance, for which the city pays 100 percent of employee premiums, mean the standard pay increases may not happen next year.
Responding to questions from Alderman William Urena, Herren said the city gave a 2.3 percent cost-of-living allowance increase to employees last year, a 3 percent step increase for qualifying employees, and continued to pay 100 percent of the insurance despite an increase of nearly 20 percent in premium costs.
“I’m afraid, since they’re already talking about a 4 percent consumer price index increase, and with the insurance, we’re not going to be able to handle it,” Herren said.
Herren said the city’s major street projects are coming in within expected budget ranges or can be adjusted to address overruns, but said major street work may not be possible in future years after many years of paying large sums to repair the city’s streets.
“I am of the philosophy that we are catching up with our major street projects,” Herren said. “I suspect that next year’s plans should be concentrated on patching and repairs of streets. We need to get away from these high-dollar projects of reconstructing existing streets.”
That doesn’t mean major projects using state funds can’t go forward, Herren said. City leaders are continuing to work with Pulaski County and Waynesville to plan how best to use a $286,000 small urban cluster grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation.
The city’s share will likely be lighting improvements on Missouri Avenue, but that’s more complicated than it originally appeared, Herren said.
“We asked, when (MoDOT) re-did Missouri Avenue, that every one of their (electrical) connections would have a plastic sheath,” Herren said. “Well, they did, but then they went in and covered it up and they didn’t keep a record of where their utility sleeves are located.”
The result, Herren said, is that utility bores under Missouri Avenue run the risk of hitting utility lines and special work will be needed to protect the lines from construction damage. That may mean hiring a contractor with special equipment, he said.
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