By Jodi Rogstad
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne)
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The governor’s decree to cut 10 percent means the mayor and Cheyenne City Council could have $640,832 less in state funding for the next fiscal year.
Already, Mayor Rick Kaysen eliminated next year’s $50,000 allocation to the Art in Public Places fund, has proposed more than $81,000 in fee hikes and is looking at selling off seldom-used city vehicles.
That means the mayor and City Council must find places to trim from their proposed budget, which was, until last week, balanced at $51.66 million; flat compared to fiscal year 2009.
Councilman Jim Brown had one suggestion to restore $90,000: convince the city firefighters’ union to give up what amounts to a 1.5 percent increase in their take-home pay.
By statute, firefighters pay 8.5 percent of their pay into their pensions. During negotiations, Cheyenne firefighters asked the city to take on a share of that.
That means as of July 1, the city would pay 13.5 percent instead of 12 percent into their pensions. Brown said he would support the budget if the other 500 or so city employees also got 1.5 percent raises. Either that, or the union should relieve the city of its obligation, he said.
“I’m not sure the (union) really understands the big picture,” Brown said Wednesday during a council work session. “It looks to me like the fire department is all for the fire department.”
Kaysen said the contract was settled two months ago. That was done according to the timetable set forth in statute, which is well before the city is finished with its budget.
Only after that did it became clear that the city couldn’t afford raises for its other employees.
When the state put the city on notice about its $640,000 cut, Kaysen asked the union to renegotiate its contract and consider giving up the pension hike.
“They respectfully declined,” Kaysen said.
Jon Narva, president of the firefighters’ union, did not return a call to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Wednesday.
The council will vote on the budget for fiscal year 2010 during a special meeting June 16.
One way to balance it would be to bring in $232,489 from savings and cut $408,347 - or 3.8 percent - across the board, said city treasurer Barb Dorr. That would leave $80,000 in the contingency fund.
This cut will have the biggest impact on outside agencies that get city dollars.
For instance, that translates into a $21,724 cut from the Cheyenne Animal Shelter’s $567,958 allocation and $29,765 from Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department’s $778,170 allocation. But Dorr said she is taking suggestions from council members and department heads.
Kaysen has hopes for one fix. Every year, the city pays $1 million to the city’s water and sewer provider, the Board of Public Utilities, to satisfy a bond payment for a $40 million project in 1982.
Wednesday evening, he was trying to determine whether the city could defer part of next year’s payment to free up some dollars.
Otherwise, Kaysen said, “It’s going to be very, very difficult. The result may be a diminishment of city services.”
The council plans to meet again next week in another budget work session to discuss the options.
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