SEQUIM — Spend now or save for later?
That’s the question facing the City Council as it wrestles with the city’s 2003 budget.
The preliminary budget prepared by City Manager Bill Elliott shows revenue and expenses can be balanced by dipping into the city reserves for $538,000.
If the council approves of that action, the city will only have $466,911 in reserve funds.
A $382,744 transfer from reserves to the street fund to cover the city’s match on the $4 million revitalization grant work accounts for most of the budget shortfall.
Elliott, during a work session Wednesday, told the council the city isn’t in dire financial straits yet.
Council members, however, wondered if it isn’t time to start tightening the city’s belt in anticipation of future financial difficulties.
“Are we content to let the reserves be spent down?” Councilman Paul McHugh said. “How much longer are we willing to spend down reserves?”
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The rest of the story appears in the Thursday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
