LIMA — Thanks to some forward thinking before the Great Recession of 2008, the city of Lima is in a stable financial position.
That was one of the messages from the General Fund budget mid-year review Monday at Lima City Council’s finance committee meeting. In his presentation to the committee, finance director Steve Cleaves said that revenues and expenses are estimated to be nearly back up to 2008 levels, with 2015 revenues projected at $29.1 million, compared to 2008’s $30 million, and 2015 expenditures slightly higher than 2008, at $29.2 million compared to $29 million.
The higher expenditures have come by way of new hirings mainly in safety service departments, with several new hirings in the Fire Department, along with 10 new police officers sworn between June and July.
“We’re still maintaining a cash balance,” Cleaves said. “Our financial state is much better than it used to be. It’s better than the three Cs [Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati] and Toledo.”
Part of the reason for that, Cleaves said, is because the city began shrinking its workforce before the Great Recession, which allowed the city to ride out the financial crisis better and be able to start rebuilding its year-end cash balance, from a low of $3.3 million in 2010 to $8.8 million in 2014. However, Cleaves does expect that balance to lower with the additional wages and capital projects.
“As the revenues and tax revenues increase, they’ll meet and there will be a landing there,” he said. “It may cause us to have a slight, shrinking deficit for a couple of years, and then we’ll be in balance, and we’ll be in balance when the cash balance is still above $7 million, and we’ll be able to maintain that.”
Finance Committee Chairman Tom Tebben was pleased with the report and the stable nature of the city’s finances at present.
“I think the controls the city has had in place through the Great Recession and coming out of it have put us in the position that we are, where we’re adding personnel and spending money on capital, which we have not done in quite some time and is absolutely necessary,” he said.
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