Discussion of the budget will be the main topic at the Clearlake City Council's meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. The council meets at City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive. Meetings are broadcast live on TV Channel 8.
Although the city of Lakeport and the county have accepted their own budgets, Clearlake City Administrator Dale Neiman's report on the budget for Thursday's meeting says Clearlake has a number of mitigating factors that make accepting a budget without the state's in place first a problem.
The largest issue facing the city is that it may suffer the loss of $575,841 through fee increases and take aways under the state budget as it's currently proposed, said Neiman.
Those increases and take aways include a $212,760 property tax loan to the state, $130,081 for a Proposition 42 (street maintenance) loan to the state, $75,000 in book fee reimbursements for police, $58,000 in increased fees to the Department of Justice and loss of a $100,000 COPs grant, according to Neiman.
The possible loss of $150,000 to the Clearlake Redevelopment Agency brings to $725,841 the city's total possible negative impact from the current budget proposal, Neiman reported.
Neiman said that, based on current figures, the city would start the new budget year with $420,000 in cash and end with a negative $4,000 balance if it lost $575,841 to the state.
Making ends meet would require making significant cuts, which is what the city had to do last year as well. Neiman said the city cut its general fund expenditures for the 2007-08 budget year by $960,000 or 17.4 percent.
More recently, general fund expenditures were under budget by $457,000, $417,000 of which was due to vacancies in the police department and Chief Allan McClain controlling expenditures, Neiman reported.
Neiman's report advises the council that the city needs a minimum cash reserve of $700,000 to weather downturns in the economy and respond to emergencies.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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