SIKESTON - The Fiscal Year 2017 budget, which goes into effect July 1, has good news for citizens and for city employees.
Citizens will see improvements to their streets and parks and additional drainage ditch maintenance. City employees, who were not part of the pay hike planned for the Department of Public Safety, will soon see an increase in their salaries.
On Wednesday, the Sikeston City Council unanimously approved the proposed budget.
City Manager Jon Douglass noted not only is the budget balanced, but will add to the city's reserves.
The FY17 budget anticipates total revenues of $14,934,055. Total expenditures for the coming year are expected to be $14,591,786.
He said the budget projects the city's overall fund balance to increase from $7,246,642 to
$7,490,711 by the end of the budget year on June 30, 2017.
"This equates to 50.2 percent of total revenues, meaning we have about six months of reserves," he said in his budget message.
As for revenues, according to Douglass, while from 2004 through 2014, sales tax and property tax revenues were relatively flat, in fiscal year 2015, sales tax revenues grew by 9 percent over the previous year. In 2016 sales tax revenues grew an additional 1 percent over the previous year and this year's budget anticipates an additional 1 percent increase.
For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, log on to the electronic edition.