Buffalo City Budget Passes First Reading

The Buffalo City Council passed their budget Ordinance on first reading this week, and spoke about the difficulties they and other municipalities and local governments are having with budgets based on lower revenue streams.

The city’s budget for Fiscal year 2021 is currently at just under $13 million, but as explained during the meeting, nearly half of that amount is in capital improvement projects that have already been funded through grants and a special sales tax.

City Clerk Julie Silbernagel gave some details about this year’s budget.

The city’s General Fund portion is roughly $4 million, with an additional $3 million generated from Enterprise Funds.

Six Million dollars has been set for Capital Improvements; $1 million for the Buffalo Business Park; $1.8 million for the Buffalo Wells and Transmission Line Project; with most of the funding coming from grants for these projects.

Three million dollars in funding from the special purpose sixth penny sales tax was allocated for the Fetterman/Burritt Street Project.

The budget will need two more readings before it is adopted, but the council, according to discussions, is expecting to amend the budget as needed once the economic picture for the city becomes clearer in the coming months.