Hyattsville Faces $1.6M Budget Shortfall

On Monday night, the newly reconstituted Hyattsville City Council got its first, broad overview of Mayor Marc Tartaro's proposed budget for the next fiscal year. 

The information released at Monday's meeting was just a  statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in the city's overall reserve fund balance. The document provides a line item budget number for each of the city's major departments and offices. Coming in at only two pages, though, some city council members wished there was more detail available. 

Hyattsville City Council Member Shani Warner (Ward 2), echoing comments from other council members, was disappointed that there was not yet more detailed budget information available to the public. 

"I was hoping we'd see a binder, like in other years," said Warner. "I don't know the level to which the departments are cutting or being asked to cut to the bone."

But Tartaro, during the meeting, said that obsolete budget software and uncertainty about how retiree health care benefits would be funded next year made it difficult to produce more detailed budget proposals. 

"It's highly complicated to get it into a book, because it doesn't just spit out into a document," said Tartaro during the meeting.

The mayor's budget projects $14.48 million in revenues and proposes $16.1 million in total expenditures and transfers, leaving the city with a $1.6 million budget deficit. 

That shortfall would be paid for out of the reserve fund balance, which currently stands at $8.4 million. Unless something is done to reduce the budget deficit, the fund balance would be reduced to $6.8 million after the next fiscal year. 

The proposed budget lays out a massive increase in human resources expenditures over the next fiscal year, driven by $1.1 million in spending to address the city's looming retiree health care benefit liability.

According to Elaine Stookey, city treasurer, the budget details presented on Monday include roughly $200,000 to fund current retiree health care benefits, plus $800,000 to establish a trust fund to pay for future retiree health care benefits. 

The budget projects a $1.28 million drop in local tax revenues. The vast majority of that decrease, $1.25 million, is the result of lowered real property tax assessments in Hyattsville. 

According to details from the budget documents released on Monday, the city's police and community and economic development offices would see smaller budgets next year. 

"We have tried to rightsize some of the budget numbers," said Stookey to the city council on Monday. "In prior years, we have tended to over budget, so we have tried to make some adjustments."

The budget would cut $163,375 from the city police department's budget, which currently stands at $6.1 million, the largest single expenditure in the city budget. 

According to Hyattsville Chief of Police Doug Holland, the police department would defund three police officer positions which are currently vacant. 

"83 percent of our budget is salaries and benefits," Holland told the city council. "There's not a lot other than positions when you are trying to look at a 13 percent reduction."

Holland said that if the cuts go forward, his department would keep the same number of officers it currently has, but would reorganize into four patrol squads from five. The city's K9 officers, which are currently assigned to specific patrol divisions, would be assigned independently during times when they would be expected to be most needed.

The Community and Economic Development Department sees it's budget reduced by $53,800. According to Stookey, those cuts are driven largely from transferring roughly $90,000 set aside for community development grant matches into the city's general fund. 

According to Stookey, recent community development grants the city has applied for have not required matches.