The Newton Board of Aldermen and Mayor Murray Weems have come to an agreement that will allow the city to remove its $8.05 capital improvement fee from receiving a late charge while keeping all of its donations to local organizations in a tight budget for 2020-2021 fiscal year.
During a special called work session Thursday morning, Weems charged the board with finding about $10,000 in the budget to allow the city to take both actions. Removing the late fee on capital improvement would cost the city about $6,250, Weems said.
During the board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 1, the board voted 3-1 to eliminate the late fee on capital improvement. Hillie, Linda Wash and Eric McCalphia voted yes, and Bob Bridges voted nay. Romonica Evans was not present at that meeting.
Weems then vetoed the resolution. City Attorney Brian Mayo said that the board would have to wait until the Sept. 15 meeting to override the veto if they chose to do so.
Weems suggested cutting subsidies to Newton athletic boosters ($1,000), Newton band boosters ($200), National Guard supplement ($200), Care Lodge ($100), Red Cross ($750) and Roxy Theatre ($1,500). All of those subsidies totaled $3,750.
The solution several aldermen came up with was to allocate the sale of the surplus property at the hospital from a CT scanner. JJ Merchant’s bid of $10,777 was approved. That money will be put into the general fund to balance the budget for FY21, but Weems warns that would only save them for this year.
"Ten thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to what the city is going to need down the road," Weems said. "It's like when you keep going back to the well. Eventually it's going to dry up."
Alderman Michael Hillie said he could not support cutting funding to the Newton band and athletics boosters because of the influence of late alderman Ray Payne.
“I'm not worried about 10 years down the road. I'm worried about right now," Hillie said. "Ray fought hard to get those supplements for the schools. I don’t understand why you would want to cut those funds to the school, especially right now.
“Mr. Mayor, we don’t need to take something like this from a predominantly black school — the same school you went to — that doesn’t show a good reflection on you,” Hillie added Thursday morning. “You graduated in ’71. I graduated in ’72. This is something you should want to do.”
“I understand that, but we have 32- 3,500 people here in the city that we’re trying to take care of too,” Weems responded. “It’s up to the board, if you want to do it.”
A point of contention that the aldermen had with Weems is that they were scheduled to have a work session for the budget on Aug. 24 at 5:30 p.m. Prior to the meeting time, the aldermen were contacted that the budget shortfall had been corrected.
Alderman Eric McCalphia and Alderwoman Linda Wash said they were under the understanding that the budget was balanced without having to cut the subsidies or keep the late fee on capital improvement.
“I was told that the money had been found,” McCalphia said.
After board members were concerned about those two items not being included in the budget, Weems suggested calling a work session Thursday morning to address the issue. Weems felt like they needed to discuss that prior to the budget hearing.
During Thursday’s work session, the board also agreed to set a special called meeting at 5 p.m. on Sept. 8 to allow aldermen to approve subsidies for the upcoming fiscal year.
The formal budget hearing will be Sept. 8 at 5:30 p.m. Any members of the public who wish to speak about the budget are welcome to come and voice their opinions on the budget.
The board will likely approve its FY21 budget at the Sept. 15 meeting at 5:30 p.m.
