By Kevin Jefferies
Commerce – The Commerce City Council begins budget sessions tomorrow night before the regularly scheduled council meeting. City Manager Bill Shipp said the first meeting will be primarily to look at the road ahead.
SHIPP: We'll have a workshop with council to be kind of a budget kick-off. To talk about some of the basic ground rules, very general in nature, and talk about the schedule ahead of us.
Council members will have some tight numbers to crunch this year. A relatively low, and potentially variable, growth in the tax rolls will mean another tight budget year for Commerce. Certified tax rolls will be received in July, after much of the budget work has been done. The City will also be dealing with estimates for construction on new facilities coming in over budget. All budget meetings are open to the public, and Shipp urged anyone interested to get involved early.
SHIPP: ...but during the whole process, of course, that's all open meetings and available to the public. And we'd certainly encourage the public's input, and certainly input into the process early. I think it's a better way, and certainly easier on us to make changes early than it is late.
Budget sessions start tomorrow at the Commerce Middle School prior to the regular City Council meeting. Final budgetary public hearings will be held in September.