Marion answers questions about proposed budget

By OWEN PROTHRO

Staff writer

Since Marion released its proposed 2027 city budget, residents have questioned what some changes within it mean.

The Record spoke to city administrator Brian Wells on Tuesday and got answers about:

• Transfers from Industrial Promotion: “It just built up, and we weren’t spending on that. If we take it out of that, we can legally use it for things that promote industry in the city. … Otherwise, I’d have to reconsider it in our mill rate increase, but we didn’t want to try to do that.”
• General fund reserve decreases while mill levy increases: “The reserve is what’s left over of what we don’t spend. So, spending is up. I know one of the concerns was the fire department per se. It’s probably been underfunded for a while now. With our new chief, he’s discovered some things that need to be taken care of on a more regular basis. … That’s one of the reasons that one went up so much. Ideally, we don’t want to drop the reserve, but there are things that have to get done.”
• Fire department commodity increase: “We needed some testing on fire department equipment, hose testing, pump testing. They needed a new oxygen machine. … There are things like that just needed to get done on a regular basis. And there are some maintenance things that weren’t getting done on vehicles. So they’re working to catch all that up.”
• Police department increase: “Twenty-four hour coverage takes a lot of people to do that. That’s part of it. We’re working toward that — having that coverage. I think we’ve got it pretty good with the four officers and … half full-time equivalent and part-time officers.”
• Minimum cash reserve policies: “Per department, no. Not what I’ve noticed. We spend everything. We plan for capital improvements and stuff. … If we don’t spend all that, then there would be more in there.”
• Long-term debt strategy: “I can’t save on the current debt because those arrangements have already been made. There’s no way, other than to pay it off early. We can always do that if we want to. Some of those rates aren’t all that much, so it’s like, do we get more done now, that way we don’t have to borrow later? You just don’t know what the rates are going to be tomorrow.”
• Five-year financial plan: “If costs keep going up, there’s going to have to be some way to balance it out with revenue and control spending. … Everything that’s in the budget we feel is necessary because it needs to get done.”

The city will conduct a public hearing to adopt its 2027 budget at 5 p.m. next Tuesday.