(KAIR)--Atchison city officials took another step towards preparing a budget for 2015, after conducting a second budget workshop Monday night.

The two workshops allowed City Commissioners and other officials to offer their input on the proposed budget. Any questions raised were also addressed at this time.
City Finance Director Becky Anderson says the two sessions dealt with different items in the budget. The first addressed the city's capitol improvement plan and the equipment reserve plan. The most recent addressed the city's general operations such as personnel, fire, police, public works, and parks.

Anderson says there is still quite a bit of work to be done before the budget is ready to be presented to Commissioners. Nearly $450,000 still needs to be cut. She says it sounds as though the Commission is in favor of keeping the mill levy where it is, but officials will have to drop the mill levy in the general fund because the debt service fund has to be increased due to payments needing to be made in accordance with the recent bond issue.

Anderson says that officials do have an idea on how they can cut that excess money from the budget, starting with the $100,000 that was designated as a placeholder for the facade loan. The plan is just to revolve that money and not put an additional $100,000 into the budget at this time.

She adds that additional cuts could come from city departments making cuts to their individual budgets.
City officials will now take another look at the budget this week, and may hold another workshop next week if needed.  Once all the necessary changes are made, City Manager Trey Cocking will present his recommended budget to Commissioners during their July 21st meeting.

Anderson says the final budget should be ready by mid August.