The city of Huntington and its budget

The city of Huntington with its population of 1,814,468 in its 15.9 square miles is getting ready to take on spending cuts with the help of the mayor’s administration and the city council. The total revenue estimate for the current fiscal year in Huntington is $42,135,417. Last year’s revenue estimate was $38,919,697, which is around $3,000 less than this year’s estimate. The total expenditure estimate for the current year is $42,135,417. This is a number that has risen since last year, which was $39,990,304.

The budget category of Business and Occupation has the highest amount of revenue. The amount of revenue was $16,563,087. Coming in with the second highest amount of revenue was the Municipal Service Fee with the number of $5,685,917. On the flipside of this are the categories that have spent the most money. The first category is the police department with $10,109,211 spent. The second category with the highest amount of money spent was the fire department. Their amount of money spent was $9,817,671.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin made a 3.4 percent cutback in the state budget, which has led to a spending freeze in the city of Huntington.

Huntington Mayor Kim Wolfe is hoping that a spending freeze will help balance the 2010 budget without having to cut a large amount of spending or affect hiring. Not only has Wolfe put a spending freeze in affect, but it is also starting two months earlier than normal. Wolfe believes that moving ahead quicker than normal will help prevent last second challenges.

The article that was summarized in my final two paragraphs can be found at http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=73263