After a recommendation by Smithville Mayor Taft Hendrixson to table the proposed $8 million city budget so that it might be studied further, the city council voted to pass the spending plan on first reading Monday night.
The mayor voiced concerns that the budget, which includes funds for a new ladder truck, may draw more than is prudent from the city’s reserve funds.
“If we spend everything in this budget, not including buying the fire truck,” the mayor told the aldermen, “we’ve got $319,000 more to come out of our reserves. The other alternative is to raise taxes, and I don’t think anyone wants to do that. I certainly don’t.
“Normally we don’t spend everything in the budget, but it’s in there, and we might.” Hendrixson counseled. “It’s not prudent business to take out of your savings account for daily spending.”
“Did we not project a similar deficit last year, though?” asked Alderman Shawn Jacobs.
“My point is, this board, especially you and Hunter (Hendrixson) have done a tremendous job of holding the line on spending.” Jacobs continued. “Because of that, I am comfortable with showing a deficit, because I don’t think we’ll spend it.”
The mayor said that he felt that the problem with that line of thought was that tax revenues have not gone up in the city for several years, but spending continues to rise.
“The problem is our spending is going up, and our revenues are not,” Hendrixson told Jacobs.
“I don't know if I’m even going to be here (after the election),” Hendrixson said, “but if I am, I’m going to try not to spend it all, but when you budget something that makes it available.”
“I’m comfortable with that figure,” Jacobs said. “I don’t think we’ll spend it all, and if we do we’ll certainly have the rest of next year to tighten something up. Personally, since it only about $100,000 more than the projected deficit last year, and since we have such a good track record of not spending all the money, and we usually return some to the surplus, I’m all right with that.”
When asked how much was in the city’s reserves at this time, Secretary-Treasurer Hunter Hendrixson told the assembly that there is now around $3.5 million in the general fund, with $400,000 in CDs.
“Are we not returning about $500,000 to surplus from last year’s budget?” Jacobs asked.
“I don’t think it will be that much.” the mayor said. “ I know that just because it is in the budget we don’t have to spend it, but sometimes we do.”
“With the surplus that we have I don’t think anybody wants to consider a tax increase,” Jacobs said. “If we do have to dip into the surplus, I just don’t think we’ll have to dip that deeply into it. We are so fiscally conservative here that I can’t see a scenario where we would dip that much into it.”
After the reading of the budget, Alderman Gayla Hendrix made a motion to accept the budget as written, and Jacobs seconded.
The aldermen voted 4-1 to accept the plan on first reading, with Steve White casting the only dissenting vote.
The budget includes $8,297,195 in total expenditures, with  $5,399,803 coming out of the general fund, $282,927 to be spent on sanitation, $2,595,592 on the water and sewer department and $18,800 for the drug fund.