He says revenues are once again flat, but expenses keep increasing.
Frederick, Md (KM) It’s been the same scenario since he took office. Frederick Mayor Randy McClement says when it comes to crafting a budget, revenues are flat while expenses keep going up.
“That’s the good thing about Frederick,” McClement said Saturday on WFMD’s “Frederick’s Forum.” “While it’s been tough, revenues stay flat. But the big problem is last year the expenses were somewhere around 5% or 5.2%.”
He says last year, revenues came in at around 3% to 3.2%, and expenses went up more than 5%. “When people come in and say ‘I’d loved to have X. We want to have Y’,” the Mayor says. “These are thing that I don’t anybody disagrees with. Usually, everybody who throws us something has a good idea. As my budget director always says, it’s just math. You have one dollar in revenues and, already, you got $10 in expenses. What do you do to fill that $9?”
McClement says that’s been the scenario he’s been dealing with since he took office in 2009.
But over the years, the city has avoided tax increases to make up for this revenue shortfall. “Every year, our employees stick to that budget, and better it,” McClement says. .”At the end of year, we usually have some money left over. That money goes to fill that gap. That’s the first thing that we can do. So we actually can balance the budget against the savings that we have.”
On another topic, Mayor McClement did not announce whether he’s running for re-election in 2017. “I am Mayor for four years. I’m not Mayor for three years and one year worth of running,” he says. Right now, McClement says, his priority is drafting the budget. “I have been working hard on this budget. There’s plenty of time for me to decide what to do. I have until July 3rd.”
So far, the only announced candidate for Mayor is Alderman Michael O’Connor.
Kevin McManus