Mayor to present city budget Monday

Mayor Dwight Tankersley will present a preliminary budget totaling $9.9 million to the Hartselle City Council Monday night during its regularly scheduled work session.

Tankersley said he’s expecting revenues to be almost flat from 2010-2011 to 2011-2012. Because of that, the Tankersley’s budget looks very similar to what was presented last year.

“That’s why we have budgeted the exact same number for sales tax revenue that we did last year,” he said Monday. “We’re probably going to end the year just about where we budgeted it or maybe just slightly under budget.”

As of July, sales tax revenue is about $13,787 under its year-to-date budget numbers, but the city has already taken in more revenue than the whole previous year. However, the city is anticipating fuel costs to increase by $69,000.

Also due to the lack of increased revenues, Tankersley said he has not included a cost-of-living raise for employees, but he added that several city employees will be eligible for merit raises on the date of their anniversaries.

“Some employees will qualify a step raise increase on the anniversary of their employment based on their evaluation,” Tankersley said. “The evaluations are scored and the employees will receive the raise if they score high enough on the evaluation. This only applies to employees haven’t already topped out on their pay scale.”

The work session Monday is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.