The Wellington City Council has approved the budget for 2011 and little has changed since last year.
The tax levy for the City of Wellington will remain virtually the same, dropping only slightly from last year.
“It did go down a half mill, so we did have a reduction,” Wellington City Manager Gus Collins said. “That’s despite the assessed valuation remaining status quo.”
Collins says the difference to the budget is only $21,500.
“It’s not incidental, but we are maintaining services to our citizens,” said Collins. “We are trying to be good stewards...and we do that in the best way we can by minimizing that tax liability on our citizens. We do look at that very carefully...”
The Wellington City Council approved the 2011 budget with a vote of 7 to 1, with John Tracy voting against the proposal.
Starting in December of last year, the city has been reviewing their capitol improvement plan and budget for FY 2011.
“It’s many meetings and a lot of time and effort both from the governing body and from staff and it results in the budget hearing we held the last meeting in August,” Collins said.
The property tax dollars the city will be receiving to operate next year, $2.129 million will be similar to 2010’s numbers of $2.151 million. The total operating budget for FY 2011 is $27.381 million, an increase from 2010’s $25.725. Collins says this increase is mainly due to monies generated from the utility fund.
Though the city would always like to see an increase for their operating budget, Collins says staff has come up with a balanced budget for Wellington.
“It’s a limited budget, but we still met our objectives which were to retain the same amount of staff and provide the same level of services to the city and community,” said Collins. “There’s no new source of resources so we try to maintain. Since the mill levy is slightly decreasing we try to allocate funds in the best manner possible and so it will have the biggest impact on the citizens of our community.”
Collins says assessed valuation could see any increase next year with all the construction that has been going on in town.
“We’ll see some adjustments in the positive for us,” Collins said.
Last year the city decided not to add any new positions and put a salary freeze into effect. Employees were also not given meritorious raises last year in an effort to keep staff where they were. This year, employees may see raises based on performance.
“The governing body looked at many options, realizing that employees are huge and our most important piece to providing services, so in 2011 we looked at a lot of different options and things and they came up with no cost of living, but a pool of money that will be distributed based on the performance of the evaluations of each of the employees,” said Collins.
That pool of money is $75,000 and will be awarded based on 2010 evaluations, Collins said.
“[The Governing Body] is very cognitive of the economic times...but they wanted to provide something to the employees,” said Collins.
Utility rates should also stay the same next year.
“We don’t anticipate any increases in the rates for the utility fund, barring any emergencies or unforeseen circumstances,” said Collins.
Residents can also look forward to seeing improvements to Vandenburgh, new lights at Rock Island softball diamond and a new basketball court at Jefferson Park, along with equipment upgrades throughout city departments.
Other projects funded in the budget include creating a maintenance fund for the Wellington Aquatic Center, restoring the exterior of the Panhandle Railroad Museum, continuation of the funding of outside agencies, such as the Chisholm Trail Museum and the Chamber of Commerce, and the continuation of the city’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display.
The 2011 Wellington city budget is available on the city’s website at www.cityofwellington.net under City Clerk/Utility billing.
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The Wellington City Council has approved the budget for 2011 and little has changed since last year.
The tax levy for the City of Wellington will remain virtually the same, dropping only slightly from last year.
“It did go down a half mill, so we did have a reduction,” Wellington City Manager Gus Collins said. “That’s despite the assessed valuation remaining status quo.”
Collins says the difference to the budget is only $21,500.
“It’s not incidental, but we are maintaining services to our citizens,” said Collins. “We are trying to be good stewards...and we do that in the best way we can by minimizing that tax liability on our citizens. We do look at that very carefully...”
The Wellington City Council approved the 2011 budget with a vote of 7 to 1, with John Tracy voting against the proposal.
Starting in December of last year, the city has been reviewing their capitol improvement plan and budget for FY 2011.
“It’s many meetings and a lot of time and effort both from the governing body and from staff and it results in the budget hearing we held the last meeting in August,” Collins said.
The property tax dollars the city will be receiving to operate next year, $2.129 million will be similar to 2010’s numbers of $2.151 million. The total operating budget for FY 2011 is $27.381 million, an increase from 2010’s $25.725. Collins says this increase is mainly due to monies generated from the utility fund.
Though the city would always like to see an increase for their operating budget, Collins says staff has come up with a balanced budget for Wellington.
“It’s a limited budget, but we still met our objectives which were to retain the same amount of staff and provide the same level of services to the city and community,” said Collins. “There’s no new source of resources so we try to maintain. Since the mill levy is slightly decreasing we try to allocate funds in the best manner possible and so it will have the biggest impact on the citizens of our community.”
Collins says assessed valuation could see any increase next year with all the construction that has been going on in town.
“We’ll see some adjustments in the positive for us,” Collins said.
Last year the city decided not to add any new positions and put a salary freeze into effect. Employees were also not given meritorious raises last year in an effort to keep staff where they were. This year, employees may see raises based on performance.
“The governing body looked at many options, realizing that employees are huge and our most important piece to providing services, so in 2011 we looked at a lot of different options and things and they came up with no cost of living, but a pool of money that will be distributed based on the performance of the evaluations of each of the employees,” said Collins.
That pool of money is $75,000 and will be awarded based on 2010 evaluations, Collins said.
“[The Governing Body] is very cognitive of the economic times...but they wanted to provide something to the employees,” said Collins.
Utility rates should also stay the same next year.
“We don’t anticipate any increases in the rates for the utility fund, barring any emergencies or unforeseen circumstances,” said Collins.
Residents can also look forward to seeing improvements to Vandenburgh, new lights at Rock Island softball diamond and a new basketball court at Jefferson Park, along with equipment upgrades throughout city departments.
Other projects funded in the budget include creating a maintenance fund for the Wellington Aquatic Center, restoring the exterior of the Panhandle Railroad Museum, continuation of the funding of outside agencies, such as the Chisholm Trail Museum and the Chamber of Commerce, and the continuation of the city’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display.
The 2011 Wellington city budget is available on the city’s website at www.cityofwellington.net under City Clerk/Utility billing.
