Springdale budget tightens, council told

Springdale City Hall is shown in this undated file photo.
Springdale City Hall is shown in this undated file photo.

SPRINGDALE -- The city's revenues are growing with Springdale, but the costs of providing city services is growing faster, Mayor Doug Sprouse told City Council members in a budget planning session Monday night.

For instance, city planning director Patsy Christie told the group several big private development projects projected to bring in major tax revenue are headed for the city. But getting those projects the necessary permits, planning approval and record reviews stretch the time and resources available to the city's planning staff.

"I don't have enough people," Christie said at one point in the discussion.

Prospective budget figures for next year show a total of $52.2 million in the city's general fund. The figures also project an end-of-2019 balance of $4.5 million. Under the proposed budget, that general fund balance at the end of 2020 is projected to fall by $2.2 million to an ending balance of $2.3 million. Similarly, the city's sales tax fund is expected to end 2019 with an $11.5 million balance dropping to $8.6 million at the end of 2020. Overall, total expenditures including transfers to various city funds is projected to be $77 million, proposed budget figures show. Those figures include everything from the city payroll to fees from sanitation services.

"Revenues are growing and growing at a good clip, but the needs keep growing," Sprouse said at the meeting.

"We're just in for a few more lean years," he said.

According to the mayor, revenues from Springdale's 1% city sales tax are up 4.5% over the the last 12 months. In addition, the city's share of the Washington County-wide sales tax is up 3.2%. Springdale also gets a part of the Benton County sales tax and that is up also.

Yet Springdale still lags behind Fayetteville and Rogers in sales tax collected per city resident, Sprouse said in his budget memorandum to the council. This is still so despite the fact sales tax collected per city resident has grown a total of 22.9% in Springdale in four years, he said. "In 2018, we collected $386.02 in sales tax revenue per resident while Fayetteville collected $528.15 and Rogers collected $587.29," the budget memorandum says.

Monday evening's meeting began after other City Council committees met beginning at 5:30 p.m at city hall. Budget discussion began as a Committee of the Whole at 6:50 p.m. The next such budget planning session is set for Nov. 13. Monday's meeting heard budget presentations from Springdale District Court, neighborhood services, planning, the police department, the city attorney, Shiloh Museum and the museum board. The next will hear presentations from the animal shelter, fire department, engineering, street, sanitation and Bluff Cemetery.

NW News on 11/05/2019

Upcoming Events