Budget Proposal Hearing Goes Smoothly, Only One Council Revision

Instead of individual departments justifying their requests, Williams presented the city's revenue and expenditures in a full picture before addressing line items.

His nearly $43 million dollar plus budget (before grants) reflects aggressive compliance and collections attributes.

As a result, instead, of three to four special budget sessions for presentation and adjustment of the general fund budget, the session concluded at about 1:30 p.m.  with the scheduling of an after work session meeting Thursday, March 7.

"Hopefully , that's all we will need," said council chairman Mark Bates.

Councilman Scott Caserta complimented the Williams administration budget team, "You brought us a completely prepared budget. This was smooth."

The Mayor suggested "we passed this budget last year," referring to the "complexity" of re-working last fiscal year's proposal.

During the hearing, Williams explained that revenue income will be monitored on a weekly basis.

Council passed one revision during the Saturday session. They requested that the city's budgeted $3,000 contribution to the City of Huntington Foundation be increased to $8,000.