NLV approves $817 million budget in special session

By Jeff Pope

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 | 8:23 p.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council adopted its $817 million budget during a special session Tuesday – a budget that’s $24 million less than its current one.

Starting July 1, the adopted budget will allow the city to maintain services without tax increases or employee layoffs through June 30, 2010. But city officials said tough decisions might be on tap for the next year unless the economy rebounds.

Property tax revenues are down 17 percent and consolidated taxes are 18 percent lower than what city economists expected. If that trend continues, the city would have to consider more drastic measures to balance the 2010-2011 budget, City Manager Gregory Rose said.

Previously, Rose said the city could consider layoffs and outsourcing or privatizing services as ways to cut costs but he told the council Tuesday night that he doesn’t recommend that at this time.

The adopted budget doesn’t include significant cuts to public safety. However, if the sales and property taxes continue their downward trend, the city wouldn’t be able to hire more police officers without pulling the money from other services or departments, Rose said.

To hire police officers, the city operates two funds – one from property tax, the other from the statewide “More Cops” sales tax – that are running a combined $9.1 million deficit.

If left unaddressed, the combined deficit would grow to $25.5 million in 2013, Rose told the council.

“We would need to supplement those funds in some way, but I think it’s premature to talk about what will we do to do that,” Rose said.

The city is pursuing competitive grants from the federal economic stimulus bill to hire more officers, Rose said.

“We must continue to be committed to identifying and reducing expenditures. In order to avoid layoffs, it is very likely that we will be asking for concessions from our unions again,” he said. “This process will likely keep continuing until our economy turns around.”

The council is scheduled to review other cost containment measures at its regular Wednesday night meeting, including the city’s voluntary buyout program and current concessions with its three unions.

The budget was approved 4-0, but councilmen Robert Eliason and William Robinson voiced reservations about approving it because it doesn’t provide guarantees with the unions or enough details about overcoming additional shortfalls.

“There’s a lot of reservations but then, I guess, none of us know what the future will hold,” Robinson said.

The adopted budget also includes delaying capital improvement projects, including Tropical Breeze Park, improvements to other parks and to the city jail.