As the budget season continues for many cities and counties, the City of Jefferson is looking at making some changes to stay up with the changing budget environment.

At a City Council meeting last month, it was reported that the City went from a beginning fund balance in the general fund of a negative $178,000 to an ending balance of a positive $4,000 and city clerk Diane Kennedy said in a $2 million budget, only being up $4,000 isn’t very good.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says it’s not uncommon for other city budgets to start out in a deficit, but then decisions need to be made to start cutting back on different department’s budget proposals.  And one thing they always try to do is keep to their equipment purchasing schedules for the different departments.

“All of us just cringe at having to eliminate equipment purchases.  We just may have to put them off for a year, but we like to try and keep on our purchasing schedule for equipment, but during tough budget times, we have to do what you can.”

Palmer adds that another expense item that the City is looking to cut back on for this upcoming budget is part-time help.

“We had to look really hard at the necessity for part-time help and that had to be really looked at and probably cut back right away on the part-time.  It’s unfortunate but what we have to do is look at more and more efficiencies, there’s better technologies out there.”

He points out that the City could be looking at some extreme changes coming from the state that will affect their budget going into 2017 which is why they now taking necessary steps now to try and prevent any huge potential losses in the future.