An 11 percent overall reduction from last year in expenditures, no reduction of city services and no increased utility rates highlight LaGrange’s 2009-10 budget.

“The goal of this year’s budget was to maintain existing services and preserve cash flow while not burdening our citizens and businesses,” City Manager Tom Hall said. “It’s a conservative budget that’s obviously smaller. We won’t raise utility rates but we are cutting out planned capital expenditures and won’t include property taxes. … We don’t know whether the economy will improve or decline, so we will be able to preserve some cash if it doesn’t improve.”

The budget of more than $97.13 million includes pay raises for city employees and a new roof for City Hall. The raises will be based on merit and won’t be across the board, Mayor Jeff Lukken said at the annual budget work session this week.

There are currently 441 employees with the city, the same number as five years ago.

“Our staff is very efficient,” Hall said. “We have about the same number of employees serving more customers than in the past. If you look back at the 1994-95 budget, you will see we had 421 employees who covered a lot less services than what we offer now.”

The new roof on City Hall will cost about $60,000 and will replace the current leaky one, which is 25 years old.

“It’s been leaking for a few years now,” Hall said. “It will be done sometime in the summer.”

Also, the budget doesn’t include any city employee layoffs or furloughs.

A natural gas contract with Kia Motors for its West Point plant and an electrical contract with Sewon should boost revenues and utility sales, Hall said.

The price of natural gas is down and the city’s upcoming connection with Transco, a major natural gas pipeline, could prompt a reduction in city gas rates.

The budget projects nearly $17.17 million in gas revenue compared to the $21.4 million collected last year.

The city will be spending about $718,00 for state mandated upgrades at the water and sewage plant, including money for a mixer in the sewage tank and new pumps.

Sanitation and landfill departments experienced less items being taken to the landfill and the price of recyclables dropped substantially.

Recyclables brought in only $72,256 of the $120,000 of revenue projected in last year’s budget. This year’s budget projects $50,000 of revenue generated from recyclables. The landfill tip fee generated about $600,000 less than what was listed in the 2008-2009 budget. This year’s budget lists a total of $3.2 million in revenue from landfill tip fees compared to the nearly $3.1 million generated last year.

Kenneth Thompson can be reached at kethompson@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.