The Little Rock City Council will review the city manager's latest plan to make up for a $2 million budget shortfall on Tuesday. Many feared
furloughs for city employees were inevitable, but the manager hopes to avoid that.
City Council Member Ken Richardson said, "When I left that meeting, I thought furloughs were going to be inevitable."
In fact, a lot of people did. At last week's city council meeting, City Manager Bruce Moore showed everyone Little Rock could save $1 million by furloughing 492 non-union, non-emergency workers: giving them time off without pay. But, Moore says, that's "Plan B."
He says, "We want to do everything we can without impacting employees."
It won't, however, be easy. Moore notes the budget shortfall shot up to $2 million last Friday when the city found out it won't be getting $600,000 in state funding to help with pensions.
According to Richardson, some of the options include utilizing money from the city's demolition fund used to destroy dangerous old buildings, a special projects fund, or the fleet services fund created to maintain vehicles and buy new ones.
Moore says mild weather and reduced income from utility franchise fees caused the shortfall. "I'm praying for a hot summer and a cold, cold winter and I say that jokingly," he said.
The only true solution, according to Richardson, is new revenue like a sales tax or hotel tax increase.
"If we're not looking at a long term strategic plan down the line to increase our revenue streams; once again, we'll be back here every three or four months piecemealing."
City Council members meet at city hall to find out more about all the possibilities Tuesday. And another city employees’ union will also meet Tuesday to decide whether or not to forgo pay raises
like the police and firefighters unions did.
