After their first budget work session Monday afternoon, Columbia City Council members appear to have mixed feelings toward proposed cuts.
First Ward Councilor Valerie Carroll said she’s most concerned about utility assistance programs.
“I want to make sure that we are there to cover needs in our community, especially with the knowledge of when those needs aren’t met those costs are likely to appear somewhere else in other programs,” she said.
She expressed dissatisfaction with the decrease in funding.
“It’s just hard when funding is slower than in previous years,” she said. “It’s hard to look at things you want to be able to do and can’t quite do.”
Sixth Ward councilor Betsy Peters framed this year’s cuts as no different than any other year and said not everything can be funded.
“This happens every year,” she said. “I mean we need to have a balanced budget, so to have a balanced budget means we have to look at what we’re currently paying for, what our needs are and then balance the budget.”
This current budget proposal was created without including a proposed public safety tax, which will go before voters next month.
There will be two more budget work sessions before the council votes on the budget in August.
