El Mirage avoids municipal layoffs in upcoming budget

Many West Valley cities have slashed their budgets and laid off a number of employees because of the recession.

An exception is El Mirage. The Northwest Valley community has not laid off a municipal employee or made significant cuts to the budget, which the Common Council recently passed at a regular meeting.

"We've been very fortunate to not have to do some of the things other cities are doing or about to implement," said Larry Price, finance director for El Mirage. "It's been a true testament to how we're trying to handle things during these tough times."

Price said the city's operating budget was reduced from $98 million in 2009 to $91.2 million. Layoffs and elimination of positions were avoided because of retirement and attrition.

"We're built out housing wise and didn't have any growth revenue that were lost," he said. "Our state shared revenues were declining, but we've been able to cover it by reducing the operating budget but not by much as others."

Since December, the Surprise City Council has acted on the city manager's recommendations to reduce the fiscal year 2009 budget by $6.8 million, which included the elimination of 32 positions. The city also identified millions in expenditure reductions, reduced employee benefits, froze pay and took a no-growth approach to departmental budgets.

Surprise is projecting less commercial construction next year, a key factor in a draft fiscal year 2010 budget that calls for a $1.9 million reduction in the city's general fund.

Even with a decrease in its budget, El Mirage will add a court clerk, baliff and six police officers, funding for comes through a federal grant.

"We'll also be bring on board water department officials again," said Price. "The city contracted with Arizona American for awhile."

Councilman Roy Delgado said he credits the slight decrease with city's watchful eye on spending.

"We've been operating frugally, keeping a watching eye and making sure that we just don't get in a lot of trouble," said Delgado. "By cutting back, we hope to stay operating in the black until the economy picks back up again."