Budgets for the City of Trenton and Trenton Municipal Utilities were approved and signed by the mayor during a special meeting of the Trenton City Council on Tuesday.
On a vote of 7-1, council members approved the city budget while the TMU budget got a vote of 6-2. Brad Chumbley voted no on both budgets while Larry Porter was the second no vote on the TMU budget.
Both budgets will go into effect immediately.
This was the third vote on the two budgets, which were approved both times by the council but were vetoed by Mayor Dr. Nick McHargue. The council was unable to override the veto either time. The budgets approved on Tuesday were the same as had been previously presented to the council for consideration.
Prior to making the motion, councilman Travis Elbert said he was asking for approval of the document based on concerns expressed by city employees and a “lack of faith” in the council by citizens in the community. He also noted that without a new budget, the city could be facing a lowering of its bond rating as well as being unable to move ahead with capital projects, such as the replacement of the 17th Street Bridge.
After the vote was taken, Mayor McHargue expressed disappointment that Elbert “two years ago had been opposed to money being taken from the utility for the city (which the mayor also opposed) and now felt just the opposite.” Elbert said he had been opposed at how the money was taken, adding that the utility has just as much to gain, if not more, from those funds being used to help with economic development.
The utility budget shows a transfer of around $144,000 from TMU to the city as an administrative fee/community support, which represents 1 percent of utility sales and has been transferred from TMU to the city the past several years. Another $20,000 has been earmarked in the new budget for economic development – $10,000 from the electric department and $5,000 each from the water and wastewater departments. The city budget has a $20,000 line item in it for economic development as well.
There are no employee pay adjustments in the two budgets, however, the city payment for the increased cost of employee health insurance incurred this past year was included.
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