City of Little Rock faces potential layoffs as mayor works to amend 2019 budget

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The City of Little Rock is facing some potential layoffs as it looks to possibly amend the 2019 adopted budget.

Mayor Frank Scott Jr. told the Board of Directors during a meeting Tuesday night that they need to get spending under control. The mayor said the city had a $9 million deficit from 2018 before he took office. Although layoffs could be on the table, Scott wants to hire 100 new police officers over the next few years.

"In the face of these challenges, we've relied on onetime monies to really prop up some areas of the budget which we are grateful that we had the opportunity to do so,” said Scott. “This not a sustainable solution when we're thinking about our long-term future and it's time for us to address this problem head on."

At Tuesday’s meeting, it was revealed that the city's spending has exceeded what they've taken in considering the growth of sales taxes has remained stagnant.

"How many people are we going to let off and who are we going to let go in this situation -- and that's really where we are now,” said City Director Dr. Dean Kumpuris.

While that question remains unanswered, Scott said personnel costs are eating up a big portion of the city's budget.

"Seventy-five percent of our general fund budget is personnel,” said Scott. “We need to curb it back ... a more manageable personnel cost should be around 65 percent."

While cuts to staff is a possibility, Scott has a goal to hire 20 officers by 2020, which will cost an estimated $1.6 million without cars and equipment.

It’s an idea City Director Lance Hines questioned.

"We're sitting up here talking about having to cut budget, and mayor I know that this was a big campaign promise of 100 officers, but we just got fully staffed with our police force at the end of the year, roughly,” Hines said. “I don't know if we've had time to see what that fully-staffed police force can get us, as far as crime reduction."

Data presented to board members showed that over the past six years, the average salary growth for city workers has exceeded the growth in sales taxes.

Scott said he's working on three separate budget amendments to propose to the board. He hopes to have it ready by June.

You can read the budget in its entirety here: 2019 Little Rock Annual Operating Budget