A budget deficit for the fiscal year of 2017-2018 has forced the City of Monmouth to reach into general funds to help close the gap. The State has continued to hold increasingly more of the shared municipal revenues which have created a shortfall. Mayor Rod Davies is frustrated with the way things have been handled by State legislators.
“It’s the State’s not taking responsibility other than moving it down the local level. It certainly makes us look bad when we have to sit here and tell you that we’re going to have to raise revenue in some way or we’re going to have to lay off a significant portion of our police department or street department or something else,” he said.
City departments have been on a spending freeze for the last two months and will continue until the fiscal year ends in May as a part of an effort to close the discrepancy. Approximately $600,000 will be transferred to assist in covering the extreme shortfall.
To hear more from Monmouth’s city officials on the budget, click on the link below:
written by Jackson Kane
