Several Little Rock programs will have to move forward with less money after the City Council agreed to budget changes. They had to do something to make up for a two million dollar budget shortfall.
Members of a Little Rock City Employees Union voted to forgo their raises. It is a relief to city leaders who would have had to cough up thousands more dollars otherwise.
As City Manager Bruce Moore presented a laundry list of budget adjustments to the council, members listened attentively. The biggest cuts, about 1.3 million will come from the Street Department's reserve fund. He says the cut will not affect city services.
"This isn't the way we would normally want to move forward with reserve accounts, but I think this is prudent,” he said.
Another $230,000 will be cut from the fleet fund used to maintain city vehicles and buy new ones. Another $600,000 came from the special projects fund that is used for things like median beautification as well as the demolition fund used to destroy old, dangerous buildings, and grant matching funds for the police and fire departments for potential projects.
"This was anticipating potential grant opportunities," Moore said. "If we come up with an opportunity that requires some type of grant match, we'll come back to them with a recommendation."
One big relief, however, came Tuesday for the city.
Justin Nickels with the Little Rock Chapter of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees says city employees who make up the union are giving up their raises in exchange for more vacation time and a year contract extension.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees also states that, "Everybody understands that the city is having difficulties at the moment and we all expect things to get better in the future."
The
police and firefighters unions worked out similar deals with the city over the weekend. The city also cut funding for Worldfest but it's working on private donations to do a smaller version of the event in the future.
