The City of Soldotna held a three and a half hour budget work session Tuesday afternoon. Their proposal has the city currently sitting as a $900,000 deficit for fiscal year 2017 and suggests an increase to the property mill rate from the current 0.5 to 2.0.
City Manager Mark Dixson says this is still a draft budget….
Dixson: “We’ve presented a budget that’s, as they say, upside down for about $900,000 but that assumes we spend every nickel that we budget for and that doesn’t usually happen. There have been years that we’ve come under budget $1 million, $500,000, so I don’t anticipate that on January 30, 2017 that we’re actually going to be upside down by $900,000.”
There were no significant changes to the city’s staffing or services except for the elimination for the elimination for some out of state travel and training for city administrators. Dixson says instead they’ll attend online webinars.