by BRAD ROLLINS
Citing the city of Kyle’s $73 million debt load, new City Manager Lanny Lambert told council members on Tuesday that he has instituted a three-month hiring freeze for most vacant positions in the municipal government and a halt to new capital expenditures.
Even though the city is in the black for the current fiscal year’s budget, Lambert said the city will need to raise property taxes 15 cents over the next few years to cover payments on existing debt. The city’s debt service payment will increase by $450,000 next fiscal year and by $2 million over current levels by 2014, Lambert said.
“I don’t know we can raise taxes 15 cents in two years. I think we have to look at refinancing that debt and leveling off that balloon payment. I just don’t know we can do” a 15-cent tax increase, Lambert said.
The hiring freeze will not apply to the eight vacant police officer slots nor to the police chief position vacated on Friday by Mike Blake, who accepted the same job in Bastrop. It also doesn’t apply to the hiring of a new library director, who was named to the position on Tuesday before the hiring freeze was instituted.
Lambert also outlined several exceptions to the freeze on capital expenditures for projects underway including $15,000 for an economic development marketing plan, $45,000 for a pool slide that has already been ordered and $15,000 for a July 4 fireworks display.
“I don’t want to be the grinch that stole Christmas and take away July 4,” Lambert said.
The city’s mid-term financial outlook is compounded by anticipated increases in contributions to the municipal retirement system, contractual guarantees of step-raises for police officers and hikes in health, liability and workman’s compensation insurance rates, Lambert said.
The city council, most of whom took office in early 2010 pledging a new era of fiscal restraint, instituted a small decrease in the tax rate this fiscal year by scrapping a number of big-ticket public works projects that had been slated for funding.
The specter of forthcoming tight times continues to be a factor in council discussions, as it was on Tuesday when council members discussed “quiet zones” around railroad crossings. To a person, council members said the project would be nice – especially in crossings crowded by homes or businesses — but that they couldn’t see paying for it right now.
“When I look between now and the year 2016, I’m really concerned about where our budget is headed ... We’re going to need every single penny and dime for the next six years just to make ends meet,” said council member Russ Huebner.
