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Council urges renewed focus on revenue generation and grant writing amid tight budget
Summary
Council members said the city is about $2 million short under current projections and urged revisiting revenue assumptions, increasing solicitation of commercial development and considering a dedicated grant writer or commission-based grant writer to capture missed opportunities.
Council members used the department presentations to underscore broader budget pressures and the need to revisit revenue assumptions. "We're still 2,000,000 and some change away," Councilman Mister Creel said, urging the council to task revenue-generating departments to increase efforts and to consider adding grant-writing capacity.
Council members said the city had held a revenue workshop as a starting point and that some small increases (for example in certain taxes or fees) had been projected by staff. Members asked the committee to circulate brief synopses and projection materials so that all council members could review assumptions in advance of future meetings.
Mr. Marshall and staff said they had provided initial revenue projections to the finance committee and that some modest upticks (for example in certain taxes or fees) had been included in the draft. Council members asked for a clearer, documented follow-up after committee discussions and suggested exploring either a full-time grant writer or a commission-based contract to pursue grant opportunities that neighboring cities had successfully captured.
The council did not adopt new revenue policy at the meeting but directed staff and the finance committee to provide updated materials and a brief synopsis to all council members before subsequent budget deliberations.
