The Belen City Council approved this fiscal year’s final budget on Monday night, expressing caution that the budget remains tight because gross receipts tax revenue remains lower than expected.

The vote was 3-0. Councilor Wayne Gallegos was absent.

The budget anticipates general fund expenditures of more than $4.9 million. It anticipates general fund revenues of almost $4.3 million. The difference is made up through transfers from other revenue sources.

The general fund balance at the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year, assuming gross receipts revenues come in as projected, is just above $3,000.

With the budget so tight, the city is continuing to operate with extreme caution.

While there has been discussion of additional cuts because of weak gross receipts, no decisions have been made.

According to the city’s finance director, Michael Steininger, the city can look at cutting capital projects, like the roof repair for the municipal court, or budgeted purchases, like needed equipment, before further affecting staff.

Belen City Councilor Mary T. Aragon on Monday night questioned whether or not police officers should be allowed to continue to take police vehicles home, citing weak gross receipts tax revenue and continuing budget problems.

The issue came to the forefront of debate in late March as the city began cutting back on employees’ vehicle use to help reduce the city’s budget deficit.

In early May, former Police Chief Mike Chavez resigned in a deal that allowed his salary to be put toward continuing to allow police officers to take their vehicles home.

Despite the deal, the issue is again under discussion by the city council because of continuing budget problems.

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Interim Police Chief Dan Robb defended the take-home vehicles as a necessary incentive for keeping good officers working for the city.

Typically in discussions a distinction has been made between police vehicles taken home outside of Valencia County and taken home within Valencia County.

In general, the council has been more supportive of allowing police officers who live near Belen to take their vehicles home to enhance response time.

In addition to police vehicles, Aragon also questioned vehicles still being taken home by the city’s airport manager and engineer, despite the ban in March.

Councilor Lorenzo Carrillo also expressed skepticism about continuing to allow police officers to take their vehicles home.

Since the beginning of the month, the city has been more closely monitoring the city’s gas consumption to ensure vehicles are being properly used.

The Valencia County Commission last night unanimously agreed to pay the 13th Judicial District Court $50,000 so local courts can continue to offer alternative sentencing that help some offenders stay out of the county jail.

The funding will allow the district and magistrate courts to continue contract services provided by a probation officer who monitors roughly 75 offenders who might otherwise be in jail. The money will also pay for things like ankle bracelets.

The State of New Mexico cut the funding for the program for this fiscal year.

Had Valencia County not funded it, 36 to 40 of the offenders in the program would likely have ended up spending time in the Valencia County Detention Center, which is so overcrowded that this month nearly 30 inmates are being housed in Santa Fe and Cibola counties.

“The ‘no vacancy’ light is on,” said Commission Chairman Don Holliday.

According to Derek Williams, the jail’s warden, the county pays $85 a day to house the inmates in Santa Fe County and nearly $65 a day to house them in Cibola County. In-house, the cost per day is a minimum of $30.

Adding 36 to 40 inmates to the number already housed outside of Valencia County could cost the county much more than the $50,000 it’ll spend on program.

“There is an actual cost-savings to the county,” Commissioner Pedro Rael said.

Commissioner Ron Gentry, skeptical of committing money to the program, asked the commission to immediately identify how the county will fund the program.

The county was expected to hire four detention officers in August. The commission ultimately decided to fund the program by postponing the hiring of two of those four officers.

The City of Belen, Village of Bosque Farms, Village of Los Lunas and Town of Peralta all use the county jail to house their inmates.

Holliday recommended amending the county’s joint powers agreements with each of the county’s municipalities.

“Hit them up for a couple more bucks a day,” he said, an idea included in the motion approved by the commission.

Holliday said the municipalities should pay an additional $10,000 each.

Williams thought the county might have trouble collecting the additional $10,000 per municipality, noting that the City of Belen is six months behind on its payments to the county jail, owing nearly $17,000.

Valencia County brought more than $9.7 million in property taxes to the county’s budget during the last fiscal year, which helped the county end the fiscal year with an estimated $892,000 budget surplus.

County Business Manager Kenny Griego said Treasurer Dorothy Lovato and her office were responsible for the high property tax revenue.

During the final months of the fiscal year, Lovato implemented a tax collection program that targeted delinquent accounts.

“They did a great job,” Griego said.

He said the county is “suffering,” however, because the State of New Mexico is slowly reimbursing the county’s portion of the revenue. He also said gross receipts are down.

The county ended with total revenues, including gross receipts and fees, of more than $13.7 million.

Despite the good news, Commissioner David Medina urged caution.

“We’ve got to keep our expenditures down,” he said.

The City of Belen is keeping a close eye on the use of city vehicles and overall gas consumption as one way to address continuing budget concerns.

In March, the city cut down employees’ vehicle use as one of several step to eliminating what was an estimated $3.5 million budget deficit. The policy keeps employees from taking city vehicles home, with the exception of the police department.

This month, the city council received a report detailing the gas expenditure within the police department.

During the month of May, the 11 officers who take city vehicles to their homes outside of Valencia County used 138.55 gallons of gas on average.

Among those 11 officers, the officer with the highest gas consumption used 247 gallons. The officer with the lowest used 21.7 gallons.

Also during that month, the 10 officers who take city vehicles to their homes within Valencia County used 100.8 gallons of gas on average.

Among those 10 officers, the officer with the highest gas consumption used 168 gallons. The officer with the lowest used 49.2 gallons.

The numbers don’t distinguish between patrol officers, detectives and others.

The City of Belen is considering furloughing all city employees for one day before the end of this fiscal year to help the budget, Interim City Manager Mary Lucy Baca told city councilors at Monday night’s council meeting.

A city ordinance requires that all pay increases and decreases be approved by the city council prior to taking effect.

If approved, this would be the first time the city would furlough employees involuntarily as part of cuts made to correct problems associated with what was once a $3.2-million budget deficit.

Right now employees are allowed to take voluntary furlough days, a program that’s saved the city more than $4,000 since it started in March.

Valencia County Manager Eric Zamora said during last night’s county commission meeting that he expects the county to end the current fiscal year on June 30 with up to a $1.5-million surplus.

According to county officials, the surplus could be between $850,000 and $1.5 million.

Zamora mentioned the positive news as the county commission unanimously approved a $13.4-million preliminary budget for the next fiscal year.

The new budget avoids cuts to services, including things like vector control, which had been cut last year, but was restored to the budget after public outcry.

The budget actually includes a 50-cent raise for all employees, if the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration allows it during its review of the budget.

The Belen City Council last night unanimously approved a nearly $15-million budget that includes an unbalanced general fund and a projected deficit of more than $137,000.

The new mayor and city council began its budget discussions just two months ago, shortly after being elected and appointed, with a projected deficit of $3.2 million.

Over the past two months, they have made cuts to city spending to reduce the deficit, which included a reduction in force.

The lean budget is approximately $15 million less than the previous year’s budget, which included a major interchange improvement.

The new budget doesn’t fund any rehiring of employees who were laid off less than a month ago, when the city reduced staff by 24 employees, according to Michael Steininger, the city’s finance director. It also doesn’t fund new hires.

Employees remaining with the city can expect no additional layoffs, no reduction in pay and no involuntary furloughs as a result of the budget approved last night.

The budget funds only one new project — improvements to the roof on the municipal court, which leaks during rainstorms and has resulted in the growth of mold.

According to a city document concerning the approved budget, the city’s general fund will end the next fiscal year with a $111,358 cash balance.

With that amount remaining, the city won’t have one-twelfth of its general fund in reserve, a requirement in state law.

The budget, however, projects low gross receipts and property taxes revenue. Should the economy continue to recover, the city might have enough money to cover the one-twelfth requirement and to further cut back or eliminate the deficit.

Gross receipts in May came in $17,000 less than projected, or down eight percent. Since November, gross receipts have been down between nine and 10 percent compared to what had been projected.

The City of Belen and Belen Consolidated Schools have begun collaborating with one another in a renewed relationship that could better both city and educational services.

The new partnership was formed after each government reached out to the other to begin finding areas where the city and district can work together.

So far, the city and district have joined forces on summer recreation, helping to keep local summer programs funded and available to youth.

The first collaboration involves the district’s swimming pool.

The city is expected to provide in-kind services to the district to keep the Belen High School swimming pool open this summer, pumping approximately 350,000 gallons of water into the pool free of charge.

Earlier this month, Dolores Quintana, a school board member, and Frank Ortega, the head of district maintenance, asked the city council for the water. At Monday’s council meeting, the city council will consider the in-kind contribution.

Both the city and district agree that this is the first of many collaborations.

During an 11-hour budget workshop that ended shortly after midnight earlier today, the Belen City Council and mayor came to consensus on a proposed budget that reduces the city’s deficit by approximately $500,000.

Mayor Rudy Jaramillo and the city council began working to address a projected $3.2-million budget deficit less than two months ago.

After implementing various cuts, including laying off 24 employees in April, the city went into yesterday’s meeting with a deficit of approximately $1.5 million.

By the end of the meeting, the estimated deficit was just above $1 million.

The proposed cuts discussed in last night’s meeting were across every department and largely to internal expenditures, reducing things like building maintenance and telephone costs, while eliminating things like a postage machine lease and engineering expenses.

The city appears to have avoided further reduction in staff, employee salary decreases, reduction in hours, and involuntary furlough days.

Jaramillo and the councilors had lengthy debates and some disagreement about how to proceed with several services, such as summer recreation, garbage pick-up, and recycling.

The general consensus was to continue summer recreation if it can be self-sufficient, to continue to collaborate with Waste Management Inc. for garbage pick-up instead of fully privatizing the service if the city can make it profitable, and to continue operating the city’s recycling center once an employee has been certified to run it.

The city has already cut back several city-sponsored events. With the help of donations, including a $5,000 donation from TLC Plumbing & Utilities, the city won’t have to substantially downsize its Fourth of July celebration. The city will also continue the Miracle on Main Street light parade.

The proposed budget funds only one new project. The municipal court was appropriated $30,000 for a new roof because a leaky roof is causing water damage and the growth of mold in the building.

Yesterday’s meeting didn’t delve into the details of ongoing projects, the most significant of which are the ongoing Camino del Llano improvements.

The city council is expected to consider the proposed budget at its regular meeting on May 17.