The Orange City Council is considering a $27.6 million budget for the new fiscal year. More than half of that amount will be spent to pay salaries and benefits of city employees. The city has 194 full-time workers and two part-time. Many of them work for the police and fire departments. City Manager Shawn Oubre presented a break-down of the expenses in a letter to the council. The city pays 58.5 percent of the budget on personnel. The next largest expenditure category is for maintenance and services with 24.1 percent. Those items would include keeping the water and sewer departments running, plus the police cars and fire trucks in good condition.
Debt service takes up 10.8 percent of the budget. Debt service is the payments the city makes each year to pay back loans acquired through issuing bonds.
The city spends 3.9 percent on capital outlay. The category covers the purchase of equipment like dump trucks and police cars.
Supplies for operating the city departments takes up 2.7 percent of the budget.
The City Council will have a public hearing on the proposed budget during a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the auditorium next to the Orange Public Library. The proposed budget has a slight decrease in the property tax rate and a small increase in water and sewer charges.
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