Harrisburg City Council held a legislative session on Tuesday
Just weeks after officially reopening the city’s budget, Harrisburg has approved an amended spending plan for 2022.
On Tuesday, City Council approved a $70.7 million general fund budget that includes no tax increase. The bill passed with a vote of 6-1, with council member Shamaine Daniels voting against it.
“It’s a really good budget,” said Mayor Wanda Williams. “It puts us on good financial footing.”
The 2022 budget, although originally passed at the end of 2021, was reopened and amended as a new mayor and her administration took office in January. The budget process, which usually takes months, this year was compressed into a number of weeks.
The amended 2022 general fund budget is around $8 million less than the initial budget of $79 million passed in December, which was a replica of the 2021 budget and a placeholder while the administration changed. It also reflects the new administration’s priorities.
When Business Administrator Dan Hartman initially introduced the proposed budget, he explained that the city had made significant cost reductions to be able to “live within its means” and to balance the budget.
“We had to make a numerous amount of cuts, not that we wanted to, but it was in the best interest of the city to have a balanced budget,” Williams said.
Some cuts came from removing funding for unfilled positions. Hartman said that the budget did not include any layoffs.
Spending also dropped by crossing off projects that were already completed and limiting the use of outside consultants. In some departments, expenses such as contracted services or equipment purchases fell.
However, the approved budget also features a number of additional expenditures.
In the mayor’s office, the city will hire a new director of Equity and Compliance and a special assistant for Community Affairs. Williams has appointed Karl Singleton and Gina Johnson Roberson to fill those roles, respectively.
Additionally, council voted to remove funding for the city engineer position, which is currently vacant, and, instead, move towards contracting with an outside firm for those services. Williams said that she plans to test this arrangement for a year.
Another change outlined in the document is that the director of Building and Housing Development, Dennise Hill, will also take on the role of director of Community and Economic Development. Hill said that she would spend four days a week heading up Building and Housing and one day a week working on Community and Economic Development.
In addition to the general fund, the budget includes an $18.1 million neighborhood services fund (mostly sanitation), $10.7 million debt service fund and $8.9 million capital projects fund. In addition, Hartman explained that this will be the last year that the city will need to make payments on one of its general obligation bonds, which is due to be paid off, allowing that recurring expense to be reallocated in future years.
On the revenue side, the city expects general fund revenue of $72.5 million, including the use of $8.86 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as reimbursement for COVID-related expenses and revenue losses.
The city plans eventually to pass a supplementary budget to outline further ARPA allotments, but will first hold a series of meetings, starting this week, to allow for the public to provide input on the matter.
“This is the best budget that I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” said City Controller Charlie DeBrunner, who is tasked with ensuring that the budget is followed throughout the year. “This is an honest budget.”
When the new administration first introduced its proposed general fund budget, the overall amount was slightly less than the final approved budget. However, at a subsequent budget hearing, officials bumped up the spending figure to account for several added police and fire bureau positions.
Before passing the budget, council made a number of amendments, including adding several positions, such as a special assistant to the finance bureau, a human resources specialist and an assistant city solicitor. Council also voted to remove five community service aide positions, which were unfunded in the police bureau’s budget. The administration initially proposed using ARPA funds for those positions. The police bureau’s proposed advertising budget was also slashed, from $76,000 to $20,000, and $800,000 in proposed funding for a police van was completely eliminated.
“This budget process has been a marathon to say the least,” said council President Danielle Bowers. “At the end of the day, we did not settle for what was presented […] instead, we brought forth practical amendments that we feel are in the best interest of the residents of the city.”
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