We’re in the middle of budget season going over some of same obstacles to balancing the budget that we have faced during the last few years:

• Do we raise any taxes to balance the budget?
  • the property tax rate has remained at $0.63/$100 for the last 20 years and
  • the city does not do property tax assessments)
• How do we account for an ever-growing city infrastructure?
  • In the past 10 years, our city has grown in population from approximately 17,500 to 21,000.
  • That’s a 20% increase in the size of our city!
  • The size of city government has also grown over the last 10 years
  • Our Public Safety and DPW departments have grown substantially
• Which city services should be cut to reduce spending?
  • The city has taken out debt for capital projects that it must pay via the debt service, which accounts for about $2mil of the general fund spending
  • We have added community services that residents have asked for
  • Are the departments of public safety and public works right-sized?
  • The council is supporting community interests through discretionary funding, and grants to the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department and Hyattsville Life & Times paper.
• Our Other Post-Employment Benefits liabilities are growing as long-time city employees retire
  • Those liabilities reflect future costs we can expect and need to play for, but
  • Yearly, retiree benefits are less than $400,000 of the budget.
  • Should we dial back benefits for new employees? exisiting? current retirees?

⭐And the biggest question: How does council balance competing demands of fair compensationa and expectations for staff, meeting resident expectations, levying fair taxes, while balancing the budget?

What do you think about some of the budget items already discussed by council? We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.