OJAI : Budget Shows 4.9% Spending Increase

The Ojai City Council on Tuesday examined a proposed budget for the next fiscal year that called for spending nearly $4.4 million, an increase of 4.9% above the previous budget.

The 1991-92 budget package also calls for an increase of 6.9% in the city’s general fund.

City Manager Andy Belknap and Finance Director Cyndi Reynolds told council members in a report that despite the proposed spending increase, the budget is designed only to maintain existing levels of services and cannot support any new sustained expenditures.

Belknap and Reynolds were conservative in their revenue estimates for the current fiscal year, an action they say has been justified by a general downturn in the area’s economy.

They note that growth in the city’s sales and property taxes has been much lower than in previous years.

Property and sales taxes, along with a motel and hotel tax, account for half the city’s total revenues and more than two-thirds of the general fund.

The city officials’ report warned that the combination of an economic downturn and increasing demands on municipal coffers from the county and state mean “a year or more of budget uncertainty such as has not been faced in some time.”

A preliminary budget for the city’s Redevelopment Agency will be presented June 11 and a public hearing for both the city and agency financial plans will be June 25.

The new fiscal year starts July 1.