City’s $1.2 billion budget includes funds for additional 50 employees

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the city's nearly $1.2 billion budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The budget includes the addition of 50 new positions, elimination of nine jobs and no tax increases.

There was no public comment on the budget during the Tuesday council meeting prior to the council's 7-0 vote. Mayor Oscar Goodman participated in the meeting via telephone from Washington, where he was meeting with Nevada's congressional delegation, a city spokeswoman said.

Previously, city officials said the budget added 58 positions. However, eight of those jobs are not new to the city. Those jobs, which support a city program that helps ex-felons, were funded with a federal grant and now will be paid for from the city's general fund, and so are new to that fund.

The total $1.18 billion budget is about $100 million more than the current year's budget. About half of the increase is in the $482.9 million general fund budget, which supports general government operations such as police and fire protection, parks and the courts.

As in previous years, the largest chunk of the city's general fund budget, about 60 percent, would pay for public safety: the fire department, city marshals, the detention center, code enforcement and Metro Police, which will receive an additional $10.1 million from the city in the coming year.

The new jobs include nine in field operations, which takes care of maintenance of city buildings and parks; two new fire-code inspectors; two new city planners; a new criminal attorney position; and a third deputy city manager position.

The nine positions being eliminated, all of which are all not currently filled, include one council liaison position in Councilman Steve Wolfson's office. Wolfson chose to have a staff of two instead of the three he's allowed.