ORANGE : Balanced City Budget Raises No Fees, Taxes

The City Council has adopted a $47.2-million budget for the 1994-95 fiscal year that includes no increases in fees or taxes and is balanced for the first time in two years.

The city trimmed $900,000 from the previous year’s budget by asking each city department to reduce operating expenses 2% for the fiscal year that begins July 1, said Scott Morgan, assistant to the city manager. In previous years, the city drew on its reserves to make up deficits.

The impact of the reductions should be all but imperceptible to residents, Morgan said, with the notable exception of cuts in swimming pool programs and a 23% drop in new book purchases at the library. Morgan said the library still hopes to extend its hours, however.

Some of the savings came from a continued hiring freeze that began in 1991 and excludes only certain police positions. Other savings are from a program that limits all employees except police and firefighters to a 36-hour workweek, Morgan said.

The 1994-95 budget, approved by the council Tuesday, was the first compiled by City Manager David F. Dixon, who was hired in February. Council members hailed the new “Dixon Era,” as Councilman Mike Spurgeon phrased it.

Council members expressed appreciation for the nuts-and-bolts work that went into the budget.

Councilwoman Joanne Coontz said that in recent years council members have found themselves involved in marking up line items in the budget, but can return to being a policy-making body with Dixon at the helm.

“It is such a pleasure to come to this meeting and find all this work has been done by the staff and the city manager,” she said.

The first concern of the staff and manager was coping with cuts in sales taxes and state revenue that have totaled $9 million over the past three years, Dixon said. “As a result of these declines, the community has faced some hard decisions,” he added.

The budget may have to be revised in midyear if the state makes further cuts, Dixon said.

“We just have to knock on wood and hope for the best that the state won’t come after the cities,” he said.

Dixon noted that he wants to cut the city’s expenditures by $5 million more over the next 12 to 18 months, as part of a restructuring plan. “We must define what are our wants and what are our needs,” he said. “Currently, they are not the same.”