West Lake Hills City Council discussed the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017-18 at Wednesday’s meeting and allocated some of the projected surplus funds to city projects.
Prior to the meeting, the city’s general fund had an estimated $1,296,184 of revenues over its expenditures for the 2017-18 fiscal year, City Administrator Robert Wood said.
These “discretionary funds” could be used to include additional items the proposed budget or could be saved for later use, Mayor Linda Anthony said.
City Council added three items, which had been previously set aside for consideration, to the proposed budget.
- City Council allocated $250,000 to repave city streets over the next year, which could include Redbud Trail, Westlake Drive and Terrace Mountain Drive, Anthony said. It also increased the city’s street and maintenance fund from $38,000 to $100,000.
- City Council added $200,000 to the proposed budget to address drainage. The projects were taken from a list of priorities developed by engineering firm K. Friese and Associates and would include improvements to Reveille Road, Anthony said.
- City Council added a new public works vehicle to the budget for $33,000, which the department will use to conduct city inspections.
City Council also discussed setting aside $250,000 of the discretionary funds as a “rainy day fund” to cover the city for unforeseen expenditures.
“We just don’t want to spend everything we’ve got,” Anthony said. “We want to have a safety cushion.”
The council did not take action on the proposed budget and will review the latest draft at its next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 23.
