News-Record.com

Here's some extra fun stuff that didn't make it into the paper today ("Council cuts budget to avoid tax increase"), in case you were dying to know all the gory details of this year's budget debate.

Council asked the city manager to keep the tax rate flat for next year. He offered them nearly a dozen ways to save or make the city money to get there.

Here are some of the cuts they approved and items they kept in the budget:

Ways the city will save money:
$2 million: cuts for road repaving
$200,000 — no coliseum suite renovations
$1.65 million — delayed payoff of parking deck debts
$60,000 — reduced staff at lakes
$200,000 — cut landscape contract
$600,000 — revenue from increased refuse fees
$200,000 — savings from a rolling hiring freeze

Items the council will keep in the budget:
$550,000 — housing and community development fund
$65,000 — street light fund
$679,000 — nonprofit funding
$100,000 — neighborhood grants

Things I'd still like to know: how many street lights can you buy for $65,000? And how many roads will you pave with $2 million?