North Las Vegas’ budget adds about 90 fewer jobs than officials had hoped
North Las Vegas’ budget will include 79 additional full-time jobs for the 2016-17 fiscal year, about 90 fewer than the city had hoped to add.
The city had planned to hire 173 people, with 130 supported by the general fund.
Under the final $516.2 million budget, unanimously approved by the City Council on Wednesday, about 50 jobs will be supported by the general fund. The remaining jobs will be funded by several other sources, including the “More Cops” sales tax, the library fund and the redevelopment agency. Twenty-nine of the jobs will be in general government, police, and culture and recreation, among other departments.
A critical justification committee will determine the exact departments receiving the 50 positions supported by the general fund.
In April, the city submitted a tentative budget with a $7.7 million deficit that represented about 80 of the additional full-time jobs that department heads had requested.
The city, which weighed a possible state takeover amid the Great Recession, doesn’t have enough reserves to cover that much additional staff. It has has shed hundreds of jobs through attrition, voluntary separation and layoffs over the past decade. The city also outsourced its human resources department in an attempt to cut costs.
The city now has about 1,230 full-time employees, down from about 2,000 a decade ago.
The city is trying to rebuild its staffing numbers, which have remained low even as the population has increased from 197,160 in 2006 to 230,788 in 2014, according to the most recent census data available.
For the current fiscal year, the city anticipates about $5 million in savings that will cover the 50 full-time employees, according to finance director Darren Adair.
The city’s general fund of $138.97 million for fiscal year 2016-17 is a $6.97 million jump over the actual amount spent the previous year, according to the latest numbers provided by the city. The fiscal year ends June 30.
Contact Alexander S. Corey at acorey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0270. Find @acoreynews on Twitter.
