Voting on the City of Roy’s 2024 budget will wait until days before the approval deadline. The Roy City Council voted, 3-2, to request a special meeting for further information before approving the city’s 2024 budget.
The special meeting will take place at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 15 at Roy City Hall. The budget must be approved by the morning of Monday, Dec. 18 in order to be published for the upcoming year.
Councilors Jim Rotondo, Yvonne Starks and William Starks voted against approving the budget during the council’s Dec. 11 meeting, and Rachel Chavez and Harvey Gilchrist voted to approve.
Rotondo, Yvonne Starks and William Starks expressed concerns during the study session about the $65,436 deficit in the general fund, although the council previously approved the 2023 budget at an anticipated $300,000 deficit in the general fund, according to City Clerk-Treasurer Michael Malek. The City has historically adopted budgets with deficits, as there was an estimated $100,000 deficit in the 2020 budget, which the council was warned about by the previous clerk-treasurer.
Yvonne Starks said during the study session that an option to decrease the deficit would be to reduce medical benefits for city staff. She said that the city pays about $66,000 for such benefits.
“My recommendation is that we pay 100% of employees and 50% of the families, and it would amount to about $12,600 in savings,” she said. “On the other end of that, though, when we hire a new person, they may come and want insurance. It’s a huge expense for us.”
In his presentation to the council on Nov. 13, Malek said there are a number of reasons for the deficit, including the tapering off of sales tax revenue; reduced business and occupation revenue from limited businesses within the city; and the loss of a leasing contract the City had with Sprint Mobile in the amount of $30,000.
The budget calendar began with a retreat in July, when the council was made aware of the budget deadlines. The mayor’s proposed budget and budget message were presented to the council during the Oct. 23 council meeting, and on Nov. 13, the preliminary budget was discussed along with potential revenue options. The council also held two public hearings on Nov. 13 and Nov. 27. No proposed changes were requested to staff outside of those made during the study session and adjusting for declining a potential 1% property tax increase at the Nov. 27 meeting. The minimal changes were presented to council at the Dec. 11 meeting with no additional comments or discussion until the reading of Ordinance 1013 regarding the budget.
“I’m hoping that we can pass this budget so we can move forward,” Gilchrist said after the meeting.
