Paris, Tenn.–First reading of the City of Paris Fiscal Year 2020 budget will be held at the June 6 city commission meeting and commissioners, department heads and City Manager Kim Foster met Tuesday morning to review the proposed budget.
Items that will be included in the proposed budget include a three percent Cost of Living raise for all employees, a 9.5 percent increase in healthcare premiums, a .04 tax increase, which Foster said is mainly due to the erosion the city has seen in its local option sales tax revenue which is attributable, at least in part, to an increase in online purchases.
Also included in the proposed budget is a $100,000 increase to the line item for asphalt/paving to make a total amount of $500,000, plus eight different grant projects including the planned splash pad at Eiffel Tower park, sidewalks in the high school and Rhea School areas, new signalization downtown, replacement of the Rison Street bridge, upgrades and ADA accessibility around the Eiffel Tower and smaller projects.
Foster said the city plans to pay off a capital outlay note a bit early to have more flexibility in its debt service schedule. “All of these decisions will result in a slight dip into our fund balance to the tune of about $40,000. If we had not decided to pay off the capital outlay note early, we would be looking at a surplus of about $125,000. The fund balance currently sits at $3.26M which is well within our safe zone so a slight dip into it to retire some debt was a desirable move,” she said.
Photo by Shannon McFarlin.
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