Mid-January is typically the time of year when cities begin to take a hard look at the coming year’s budget, and Perry is no different.

City Administrator Sven Peterson says all this week the City will hold budget workshops to figure out where department heads are wanting to spend money. At a special work session on February 2nd, the City Council will review all the budget requests. A second round of departmental workshops will follow, along with another Council work session. A public hearing will then be held before the certified budget is submitted to the state. Peterson says not every budget request will be approved, as much as he’d like them to be.

“Departments really understand where the City is at financially. Financially we’re strong, we’re solvent. But there’s not a lot of extra there. There’s a lot of projects out there to be done. Sometimes it’s difficult to spread that money around in a way that is most effective. It’s kind of like, ‘I’m so passionate about each of these departments, that it’s hard to cross off projects.’ I’d love to do all the projects that the departments come up with, but sometimes all of the money just isn’t quite there.”

Peterson adds, with the local option sales tax now set to continue, it opens up a lot more possibilities for projects the City could tackle in the coming years. To hear more from Peterson, listen to Tuesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.