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State of City Address Foresees Department Cuts, Complications

Meiying Wu / KBIA

Columbia City Manager John Clascock said some department cuts could be coming if revenues are down as a result of the pandemic.

Glascock gave his State of the City address on Thursday morning. He outlined a number of changes for the city. One thing that hasn’t changed is his goal to ensure more revenue for city projects.

“As I discussed last year, it might be time to consider stabilizing our revenue base by looking at other forms of revenue, instead of sales taxes, to fund critical services we provide to our residents.”

Glascock also said one of the biggest challenges for the city government is a “lag” in budgeting. For example, the city did not get March’s revenue numbers until early May.

“So that puts us behind as far as going through budgeting, trying to get this done before July and get one submitted to council that we can have some confidence in, that we can meet.”

The city of Columbia may expect less revenues for the past few months, particularly with the advent of stay-at-home orders and a lack of sales tax from online sales.

This was Glascock’s first State of the City address since becoming permanent city manager. Since then, he says he has been working on strengthening his communication with the community.

“Last year I stood before you as interim city manager and talked about building relationships. Which I have done, with the Boone County Government, the business community, and I have moved the city of Columbia forward in our diversity and inclusion goals through our hiring practices.”

Glascock said that he will work closely with city departments to evaluate the budget as revenue data becomes available.