Little Rock plans to spend $4.7 million more in 2017 than this year, according to the proposed budget presented Tuesday to the city Board of Directors.
The draft budget expects $204.5 million in expenses and $202.3 million in revenue, with the remainder made up by carrying over $2.2 million in revenue from previous years into 2017.
Little Rock rarely uses money from its unrestricted reserves to draft a coming year's budget, but it has done so in the past, Finance Director Sara Lenehan said.
Much of the increase in expenses for 2017 is from an across-the-board 1.5 percent salary increase for all employees.
Another $1.6 million is from debt payment increases associated with short-term loans taken out to purchase breathing apparatus for firefighters, new vehicles, information-technology software and the completion of the Southwest Little Rock Fire Station.
There's also new funding for the operation of the West Central Community Center and the Josephine Pankey Center, both of which opened this month.
The city budgeted $180,000 in 2017 for a new city identification program it hopes to start in the new year, offering IDs to those who might not be able to get driver's licenses.
There's also new money -- $100,000 -- set aside for a new employee residency incentive program that offers money for new hires who live out of town to buy houses or to rent within city limits.
The city also is picking up the tab in 2017 for 27 police officer positions and 17 firefighter positions that were previously funded with grant money.
Also, 14 staff positions will be added for next year, raising the city roster to 2,154.
Those positions are a bicycle pedestrian coordinator (previously part time), a security position for the Little Rock Marathon, a court administrator, recreation programmer, a parks maintenance worker, a zoo safety manager, an accreditation position in the Fire Department, a homeless-services advocate, an assistant city clerk, another administrative assistant, and four new positions in the Police Department -- a geographic information systems specialist, an office assistant, a lieutenant and a subpoena technician.
Revenue from the city sales tax has fallen short of projections in recent years, prompting the city to budget only a 1.5 percent increase in sales-tax revenue for 2017. Previously, finance officials thought the tax revenue would increase 2 percent year over year, but the actual revenue has fluctuated from month to month.
Little Rock had to dip into its contingency fund to balance the 2016 budget, in part because sales-tax collections were short of the forecast.
There are three meetings planned to present the budget to the public for feedback.
The first is at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Road.
Another is at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Centre at University Park, 6401 W. 12th St.
The last will be at the board's 4 p.m. agenda meeting Dec. 13 at City Hall, 500 W. Markham St.
Many city directors Tuesday were interested in how the city will recruit new police officers next year. The department has had a number of vacancies for some time, and with retirements and small recruit classes, it's been difficult to keep the ranks full.
City Manager Bruce Moore told the board that consultants have reviewed Little Rock's hiring practices for police and that he expects a report by the middle of January. Recommendations in that report are expected to change how recruitment is handled, with the hopes of getting more qualified applicants to move on from interviews to training, Moore said.
Currently, it takes about 1,000 applicants to get 50 recruits, which is a problem, Moore said.
Metro on 11/30/2016