Two Warner Robins council members say they've figured out a way to balance the city's budget and avoid a millage rate increase or multi-million dollar deficit for the next fiscal year.
Councilman Tim Thomas and Councilwoman Carolyn Robbins sent a release Friday afternoon saying they had balanced the budget after reading Mayor Randy Toms' proposal released earlier this year.
In their release, Thomas and Robbins claim their solution would eliminate a $4 million budget deficit and would not require a millage rate increase of any size.
The release says their proposal saves money in the following ways:
- $633,000 requested to fund new equipment and vehicles for Warner Robins Police would come from condemned funds, not the general fund
- No operating or staff cuts
- $2 million cut from the Police budget for unfilled positions currently budgeted, meaning unfilled positions would not be funded until they're filled.
- $243,000 from the Stormwater fund would be used to reimburse general fund revenues used for Stormwater management
- Other cuts in nonessential areas
- A transfer of $500,000 from the enterprise fund to the general fund
Mayor and council have until July 1st of this year to approve the fiscal year 2019 budget.
A vote on the budget is expected at Monday night's meeting on June 18.
