Walhalla spending set for another 12 months

Going forward, Walhalla now has a spending plan for a new year of city government. City leaders say their new budget holds the line on property taxes and no increases in fees on the general government side. They project enough revenues to afford three percent pay raises for city workers and enough money to buy a couple of new SUVs that’ll provide multiple uses for the police department. Tjay Bagwell, chair of the finance committee, says increases in the numbers of business license holders and sanitation customers have given Walhalla healthy boost in revenues for 2019-20. Boosting the revenues is a projected $354 thousand transfer from the utilities department to the general fund—which Bagwell says the smallest inter-government transfer in several years. The new budgets were approved on an amendment that deleted$135 thousand expenditure for a new street sweeper. Councilman Josh Roberts opposed removing the street sweeper because, from his experience as a jogger, he can see how dirty the city’s street sides have become.