The Jefferson City Council recently held its annual priority budget workshop.
City Administrator Mike Palmer explains why the Council has continued to utilize a workshop format for budgetary items since 2008.
“As items, do they have priority on them, where they rank? It really helps to keep the Council and the staff focused, especially during budget time (of) what we want to spend on. They shift around over the years, that’s why we like to have a long term trend, so we can see where certain items have been.”
Based on the priority budget surveys by the council members, they deemed the animal shelter, water and sewer line improvements and zoning overview for new development as the top three priorities going into next fiscal year. Palmer describes why the animal shelter has risen to the top of the priority list.
“The Council has poured a great deal of effort into this and there’s been a lot of donors involved in this. The expenses have been compiling as far as engineering and architect’s drawings. It’s been coming in overbid so many times. But the comments (from the council) is we need to get it finished up one way or another.”
Palmer says that because the list of priorities is an ever evolving document, certain items may get downgraded because they have been completed or are currently being worked on, whereas others will be combined into one item instead of being multiple items for consolidation purposes. Click the link below to see the full list of priorities.