Published: July 04, 2008 05:27 pm      

Navarro cities plan for fuel costs

Skyrocketing gas prices hitting home

The high price of gas isn’t just affecting families and businesses, it’s also being felt by local governments that rely on taxpayers for support. This summer, as most cities go about making up their budgets, they have to take into account higher prices for almost everything, although few expect incomes to keep pace.

Most of the smaller cities in Navarro County haven’t begun the budgeting process, but most are already anticipating some hard decisions. If appraisals don’t go up at the same rate, cities will either have to cut services or raise tax rates, an unpopular decision when taxpayers are feeling squeezed by other areas, too.

According to preliminary figures from the Navarro Central Appraisal District, values are up in the county, but it’s unclear if it will be enough to make up for the higher cost of operations. Final values won’t be available until July 25.

“We’ve already run out of the money we budgeted for last year,” said Kerens City Secretary Cindy Scott. “It’s going to be tough.”

Kerens buys diesel in bulk for the road equipment, but it hasn’t saved the town much money, she said.

“I told the police if it gets any worse we were going to get them bicycles,” Scott joked.

The City of Rice buys both diesel and gasoline in weekly bulk purchases, but that hasn’t protected the city from escalating prices, according to Tanya Roberts, city secretary.

“Our gas prices, it’s been astronomical,” Roberts said.

The city has already gone through its 2008 budgeted amount for fuel, she said.

Frost relies on its local gas station for fuel for the police and city cars, and the prices aren’t any lower there.

“It’s horrible,” said Velma Ballew, city secretary. “It’s affecting everything we buy, parts for the water and sewer system, it seems like everything’s up.”

Cutting back would mean eliminating police patrols, or the three or four weekly trips to Navarro Mills to monitor the city’s water supply, she explained.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” Ballew said.

City officials in Blooming Grove echoed those sentiments. Prices are too high, and small towns that lack budget surpluses can’t protect themselves from the impact.

“We will have to budget more for gas,” said Beth Nemeth, Blooming Grove City Secretary. “Obviously, it’s going to affect other bills as well, not just gas. Everything’s going up.”

Like most of the county’s smaller cities, it’s still too early in the summer to know if tax increases are going to be needed.

“It hurts a small town like ours,” Nemeth said. “There’s never enough to keep the roads paved and repaired in a small town.”

While most small cities are going into their budget process with at least some idea of the problem, Dawson will have to live with the budget it has. Dawson is on a spring budget cycle, which requires it to complete its budget in the spring. The start of that town’s fiscal year, May 1, was also about the same time prices began climbing.

“We’ll probably do an amendment,” said Dawson City Secretary Violet Bumpers.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com