The Douglas City Council accomplished something not many cities did this year – pass a balanced general fund budget.

In his report, Mayor Dr. Michael Gomez complimented the city council, staff and Finance Committee for all of the hard work that had been committed to providing a balanced budget.

“Through creativity, and hard work by the staff, we only used $7,000 of the $1.2 million we thought we might have to borrow from the city’s reserve. All this was done without layoffs or forced furlough,” Gomez said.

He also said that according to latest information, 38 percent of the cities in the state had to layoff employees or force employee furloughs in order to meet their budgetary demands.

Despite the lack of layoffs, the city is now operating more efficiently, with 17 less positions than it had in 2007.

“We were able to balance the budget even though last year we had to borrow $550,000 from reserves to meet demands,” said City Manager Curtis Shook.

The process was not an easy one.

At the beginning of the year, each department was asked to cut 10 percent from its previous year’s budget. Throughout the process there was also concerns about the impact state cuts would have, and when the budget was approved on July 8, the city still wasn’t sure about all of the state funding.

Shook said that sales tax revenue is critical to the budget this year, but  felt comfortable with the numbers in the budget.

The tax rate will actually drop next tax year about 2.3 percent.  This year the tax rate per $100 assessed valuation was $1.0201, next year, it will drop to $.9970.

The total budget of $46,529,958 passed by a vote of 6-0. Ray Shelton was absent from the meeting.

No audience member spoke for or against the budget during the 15 minute  public hearing at 5 p.m. on July 8.