City of Las Vegas working to tighten spending
The city of Las Vegas is staring down a structural budget deficit, leading City Manager Scott Adams to assemble a task force to start close a multi-million dollar gap a year in advance.
City officials on Wednesday rolled out a $1.4 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2019, which kicks off July 1. But the spotlight was trained on 2020, when the funding forecast shows a $7.5 million general fund deficit.
“We cannot let any grass grow under our feet in terms of attacking that 2020 budget,” Adams told the City Council Wednesday.
The city’s revenue is growing by 4.3 percent, on average — surpassed by its rate of spending growth.
“We really have to be careful — expenditures growing more quickly than revenue,” city Chief Financial Officer Gary Ameling said.
The council OK’d the 2019 tentative budget Wednesday that hikes general fund spending by more than 4 percent to roughly $574 million. This year’s budget process began with a $1.6 million deficit.
Department heads, with the exception of the Las Vegas Fire Department and the Department of Public Safety, were asked to cut 2 percent from their initial funding asks, which removed nearly $4 million in spending, city Ameling said.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s requested funding increase came in higher than city officials expected, and the city is adding and restoring a total of 56 positions, Ameling said.
Roughly 80 percent of the city’s general fund goes toward salary and benefits.
The city and Clark County jointly fund Metro, and the city’s tentative budget boosts its contribution by more than $10 million.
The city plans to add 13 city marshals, and will begin funding 13 more for half of fiscal year 2019. The city’s adding seven positions to support homeless programs, as efforts continue to build out a homeless courtyard to provide a range of services. Public works, information technology and the city attorney’s office will also see new positions.
Even with adding and restoring positions in consecutive budgets, the city’s full-time, non-public safety workforce is 16 percent smaller than it was before the recession. More than 67 percent of the city’s general fund budget pays for public safety costs.
The hearing on the proposed budget is slated for May 21.
Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @Journo_Jamie_ on Twitter.
