City of Henderson Finance Director Joey Fuqua stood and answered questions from City Council for the better part of 90 minutes during the City Council’s budget work session on Thursday.

Council members reviewed the $51.7 budget department by department, with questioning led mainly by Mayor Pro Tem Tami Walker, Catherine “Kitty” Gill and Geraldine Champion.

When he presented the proposed budget in May, Fuqua told Council members that this budget – as several previous budgets – required an infusion from fund balance. The FY 2027 budget must be passed by June 30.

Fuqua said, in closing remarks just before the work session ended, that FY 2027 is going to be a “savings effort on steroids.” He further stated to Council that city staff had already been told that the month of June would see a total shutdown on expenses as one last measure to get every last penny out of the expense category to preserve a dwindling fund balance.

The FY 2027 budget is using $5 million to bridge the gap between revenues and expenses.

The work session was, at times, contentious, as Council members and the mayor interacted with city staff, asking questions that ranged from how many cell phones the recreation and parks staff needs to whether funding the Henderson-Oxford Airport is necessary.

At one point, Mayor Melissa Elliott admonished City Manager Paylor Spruill for not letting her know ahead of time that the budget didn’t include funding her assistant’s position. “I’m not a department head – I’m just the mayor of the city,” Elliott said somewhat sarcastically.

“Don’t you think it would have been a great conversation to have with me that ‘hey, we’re not going to fund him this year.’ “I’m just wondering…,” Elliott said.

Recalling the pay raises the city used COVID-era federal ARPA funds to provide employees, Council Member Gill said the city is going to have to look at other places to cut.

“We’re going to have to cut the fat somewhere,” she said, adding that she would like to review salaries across the different city departments to look for ways to cross-train staff to possibly cover additional duties.

Council Member Garry Daeke offered several suggestions to get a jump start on next year’s budget, including calling city staff together on July 1 to get them thinking about where to make savings over the course of the fiscal year – one way to hopefully preserve services and positions.

Finding ways to tweak efficiency, he said, could be one way to do that.

“I don’t think we’re going to do a whole of changing with this budget – it’s tight as it can be.” He wants to begin FY 2028  budget discussions earlier in the year to try to get a handle on what is shaping up to be another stressful budget process.

Daeke said he doesn’t want to cut services to residents or cut positions, but he does want to investigate ways to give citizens the services they expect. “We’ve got to find a way to do it a little better,” he said.

“We can’t wait three months before the budget and say we need $4 million out of fund balance or we’re going to cut staff or we’re going to raise taxes,” Daeke said. “Let’s start now prepared not to do that and then see where we get. But we have to start early.”