City Council on Tuesday night officially approved Longmont’s $371.9 million budget for 2021 with a unanimous vote that drew no public comment.
Previous public hearings on the 2021 budget also went without any comments.
The budget is balanced and includes a $95,701 contingency account that some council members say should go for more resources for the Longmont Public Library or to help Longmont Public Media.
The contingency account is a line item in the annual budget that can be used by council for unplanned expenditures or when an entity requests financial resources, said Jim Golden, the city’s chief financial officer.
The 2021 budget is a 5% increase from the $353.91million budget for 2020. The increase is due mostly to the highest costs of several capital improvements projects planned for next year, said City Manager Harold Dominguez.
The projects planned under the new budget include the $11.6 million expansion of the Nelson-Flanders Water Treatment Plan,which is separate from the $80 million in water bond sales voters approved earlier this month; $2.2 million to improve the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plan to meet tougher state water quality standards; and $2.17 million to create quiet zones on portions of the BNSF tracks that criss-cross Longmont.
