City budget postponed for cuts

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Hillsboro city council will spend the next two weeks poring over places to snip and clip from the proposed 2019 budget, which raises the levy from 44.769 mills to 52.182.

The proposed budget, at $9,618,545, is $516,342 higher than the $9,102,203 2018 budget.

The largest line items with proposed increases are special highway, historical, municipal court, and utilities sales tax.

“I’ve done my best to stay away from trying to fix our budget woes on the utilities and the utility tax,” city administrator Larry Paine said. “When I wrote in the staff report I need help, this is the help I need. The bottom line is, think as ‘I’ve got a plan that takes me to the point I want to be,’ which is, no change.”

Paine recommended each council member think over where to cut the budget and talk to him individually so he could adjust the budget before the Aug. 21 meeting, when the final budget will be approved.

“State law says it must be done by Aug. 25,” Paine said.

A homeowner whose property has been the subject of several public hearings since the home was damaged in a fire was given the nod to consider the property in compliance with code.

Final inspection of Warren Deckert’s property at 311 Eisenhower Aug. 2 showed the only remaining items to be done on the exterior of the home were to put a second coat of paint on new siding, install a porch light, and install a house number.