Monday, February 18, 2008
News Franklin camp waffles on $70 million shortfall figure
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Mon, Feb 18, 2008 at 9:31 PM
Holding a midmorning press conference today to discuss the mega-buck budget shortfall the city is facing, Mayor Shirley Franklin and finance chief Janice Davis gave a sneak preview of more bad times to come.
Even beyond the current fiscal crunch, they said, the souring economy will likely mean more municipal belt-tightening in the upcoming '09 budget, which actually begins in July.
For example, last year the city adopted a $650 million budget for '08. With projected revenues trending ever downward, Atlanta could be looking at a lean-as-hell $500 million budget for next year, Davis said. The result could be far-reaching cuts in city services and probably in city staff, since about 75 percent of the budget is wrapped up in personnel costs.
But the morning's big eyebrow-raiser was Davis' assertion that the amount of the anticipated shortfall remains a mystery.
"Right now, I don't know how large it's going to be," she said, a statement that would seem to contradict the mayor's claim from just two weeks ago that the figure is expected to be about $70 million.
When CL pointed out the apparent inconsistency to Franklin, she said the $70 million figure is an early estimate – but the city is still standing by it. We'll see.
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