In a special city council meeting Sept. 29, the city of Magnolia passed a budget totaling $2.4 million in expenditures.

Councilman John Bramlett was the only dissenting vote in the 3-1 decision to adopt the 2009-10 fiscal year budget.

“I approve the budget, I disagree with the pay raises,” Bramlett said.

Councilman Todd Kana also said he disagreed with the 2 percent salary increases, which had been a point of contention between council members in previous meetings discussing the budget.

The $2.4 million in expenditures includes $926,505 budgeted for the police department, $697,801 for city hall/administration and $445,400 for the municipal court.

The budget comes on the heels of the most recent audit, as of Sept. 2008, showing the city’s general fund balance negative $126,000.

The budget projects revenues at $2.6 million, which, if the budget projections prove correct, would leave a $172,461 surplus.

Last-minute increase adjustments to the budgets include more than $22,000 for insurance, including nearly $3,000 for elected official insurance.

Notable decreases included a $5,000 cut in salaries for the police department.

Also passed were the budgets for the 4A Economic Development Corporation, the 4B Economic Development Corporation and the Hotel Motel Tax Committee.

At the public hearing for the budget the night before, on Sept. 28, only one Magnolia resident, Basil Tate, spoke before the council to address concerns he had with the proposed budget.

Tate addressed several issues, including budgeted money for employee salaries, health insurance for council members and the percentage of residents over the age of 65.

Questions regarding the accuracy of the numbers were also asked by Tate.

Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Patsy Williams encouraged a positive attitude in order to assure healthy functioning of the city after Bramlett voiced concerns about property tax and sales tax revenues meeting the budget projections.

“The city is going to continue,” Williams said. “We have to continue. Now we can get out there and scare everybody to death and we can talk about the sky is falling and be negative, negative, negative…”

“I’m just giving facts, that’s not scaring,” Bramlett replied.

Williams claimed the city’s sales tax has been healthy while Bramlett voiced doubts on the city meeting its projections.

“To be scaring people to death, that’s ridiculous,” Williams said.

The 2009-10 fiscal year for the city officially began Oct. 1.

In other city council news:

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