CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston City Council approved over a $94 million budget Tuesday night for the 2017 Fiscal Year, which was about $5 million more than last year’s number.
City Manager David Molgaard said a few factors went into the slightly larger figure.
“You will see some increases. Largely that was a result of natural growth in B&O,” he said. “But also this is the first budget that incorporates the increase in the city service fee.”
Molgaard was happy with the city’s healthcare budget, saying they were able to cut costs slightly.
“We’re doing really well on our healthcare. The healthcare budget in the months that we’ve budgeted for are self-insured claims stayed the same,” Molgaard explained. “Our liability insurance and our ability to manage our risk has resulted in a small decrease in our premiums.”
Medical and life insurance expenses have remained the same for city employees at $11.1 million, and workers compensation costs have decreased by about $4,000, according to the budget. Molgaard said the city had done a good job of cutting costs.
“Our department heads have done a really good job of not only working with less but also becoming more efficient, and that really shows up in the budget process like it did this year where we haven’t had to go in an increase a lot of line items. In fact, in many cases we’ve decreased line items.”
About $1.7 million will go toward the city’s general fund, which goes toward road projects and police services.
“We’ve created maintenance schedules for our bridges and parking garages for instance,” Molgaard said. “We keep that up on a regular basis, on a pay-as-you-go basis within our means so that we don’t let an issue become a large issue where we have to go borrow money.”
The city sales tax increase was enacted July 1, 2015, from half a cent to full 1 cent. The city service fee increased at the beginning of the year to $2.50, and will increase again to $3 in 2020.