Expenses large and small are cut in anticipation of steep drop in revenues
Sunday, November 30, 2008
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter
ORANGE BEACH — The penny-pinching that began this summer in City Hall with a hiring freeze, reductions in overtime and employee travel and culminated this month with the layoffs that saw 23 workers lose their jobs will continue in 2009, the city's proposed budget shows.
The plan, which anticipates a $5 million drop in revenue next year, includes detailed plans for a year of frugality from the elimination of take-home vehicles for employees to a mandate to print two-sided documents, and only in black and white.
There will be no capital purchases of more than $7,500, according to the 29-page spending plan. There will be no new employee uniforms.
Employee travel, training and tuition reimbursement are out. Vehicle logs, ride sharing, e-mail and orders to unplug office equipment when it's not in use are in.
Faced with a $3.3 million shortfall to end this year, municipal officials have spent the past few months trying to figure out ways to operate cheaper in 2009, which they believe will see revenues drop lower than they were in 2008.
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