The Memphis City Council did not approve a city budget during its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night as many council members said they had too many questions unanswered by Memphis mayor A C Wharton’s administration.
Instead, the council voted Tuesday to take up the budget again on Tuesday, June 23 at 8:30 a.m.
But here’s a few things the council got done on the budget Tuesday night:
• They approved $100,000 for Hospitality Hub, an organization that provides services to homeless people.
• Approved $200,000 to hire an administrator and two support staffers for the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board
• The cut more than $340,000 from the budget for new positions in the mayor’s office that wold have been focused on helping more minority businesses get city contracts.
The council adjourned the regular meeting at around 8: 45 p.m. The session began at 2:30 p.m.
When they return to the adjourned meeting, they’ll vote on a proposal from council member Reid Hedgepeth that would keep the budget as the council has amended it so far and give a 2 percent raise to police and fire fighters starting January, a move that will cost $2.7 million next year and $5.4 million in the next full fiscal year.
The amended budget includes about $837,000 in council cuts. It also includes an additional $1.5 million in new revenues that was earmarked Tuesday for an additional, one-time payment to the city’s underfunded pension fund.
With the council cuts and the new revenue, the budget came in only about $200,000 over the mayor’s proposed budget. At the beginning of Tuesday regular session, the budget stood at $658.3 million.
A swirl of numbers and accounting terms quickly muddied the waters of discussion Tuesday. It frustrated many council members who asked sometimes technical questions of the city finance staff who sometimes could not get the answers right away. Much of this confusion was summed up by the newest council member Alan Crone.
“I don’t want to spend money we don’t have. I don’t want to tell our workers and our retirees that there’s no money when there is money. I don’t want to vote against a 2 percent raise for police and fire because they deserve it, and more, an better. With respect to the mayor’s officials who are here tonight who try to answer these questions, I appreciate the effort they made.
“It’s been very difficult from the questions asked for me to sort out whether or not we have the money or we don’t have money. What’s the responsible thing to do and the best interest for taxpayers? We owe our responsibility to the employees and retirees and we owe it as a council to taxpayers to make sure money spent wisely.”
