JACKSON CITY APPROVES $15.8 MILLION BUDGET

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Aldermen approved a 1999 budget of $15.8 million Monday night, a 5 percent increase from the amount the city spent in 1998.

The city's East Main Street extension project will account for a $1.165 million expenditure in 1999. Other new costs include the funding of five new city positions, including three new firefighters, another policeman and a city engineer.

The extension of East Main Street to Shawnee Boulevard is part of an overall plan the city hopes will result in a new Interstate 55 interchange being built. The Missouri Department of Transportation has yet to fund that project.

The establishment of its new Tax Increment Financing District also will result in additional costs in 1999.

The city's balance of all funds is anticipated to be about $9 million at the end of this year. The fund balance projected for the end of 1999 is $6.8 million.

Assistant City Administrator Larry Koenig said the city's figures for receipts are conservative, as has been its past practice, and the disbursement figures tend toward the high side.

For instance, the city's projected sales tax receipts do not include those for the new Wal-Mart Super Store and a new Buchheit's store to open in 1999.

The city expects to spend down its current $4.875 million surplus by about $700,000 in 1999. That includes a $120,000 payment for property in the city's new industrial tract.

The city's general revenue fund, which will stand at about $425,000 at the end of this year, will drop to $31,000 by the end of 1999. Koenig said the sizable amount in the general revenue fund is due to balances carried over from past years.

In other business, the Board of Aldermen:

-- Approved a new compensation policy for volunteer (paid on call) members of the Jackson Fire Department. The new policy will pay the volunteers in accordance with their level of training.

-- Adopted a "Year 2000 Readiness Statement" for the city, certifying that potential computer problems that could be caused by the year 2000 have been addressed.