For Your Consideration: Mayor Welsch's Take on the 2013 Budget

On Monday, March 19, another public budget meeting will be held. This meeting is designed to give residents the opportunity to provide their feedback and ask questions on the budget, which was presented to Council on Feb. 25, 2012.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the . Everyone is invited to attend.

You can take a look at the draft budget before the meeting. It is published on-line at the City’s website at www.ucitymo.org. You can review a hard copy at the .

This year’s budget document is leaner than past budgets – about half the size of last year’s document. Much more explanatory information has been included – organization charts for each department; detailed explanations of what each department does and plans to do in the coming year; and some comparison columns that, at a quick glance, allow you to compare this year’s expenditures with next year’s proposed expenditures; and more. All in all I believe this budget document takes a huge step in making the City’s finances more understandable. Still work to be done, but this is a good start.

The budget document begins with a letter from the city manager to the members of the Council. I think it’s worth your reading – because it sets forth very clearly the challenges we face, and some of our plans on how to deal with them. I link to this document below.

FY2013 Budget Letter

I encourage you to read this letter; perhaps take some time to study the budget document; and attend one of our budget meetings. We will have another public meeting in April, and the official public hearing on the budget in May. The Council, by Charter, must approve the final budget no later than June 27. I anticipate no problem in making that deadline.