By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — New Hutchinson City Manager Jeff Cantrell believes the city is well-positioned, no matter how significant the damage from the reduced economic activity may be to the budget.
"It's an opportunity for us to make some smart decisions and analyze the services that we provide to the citizens," Cantrell said. "We're looking forward to that. I'm very confident in our group that we have, both elected officials and staff. That was a big piece of my vetting when I came on board here."
It's important to note that the city manager's job is to make the numbers work and no one knows what those will be right now.
"They're forecasting right now based on assumptions," Cantrell said. "Most of those assumptions deal with falling sales tax collections, delinquencies on property taxes that are anticipated. I think you're going to see some cities missing their bond payments. I think you're going to see some of that. Certainly, that's not the case here in Hutch."
The fiscal restraint of John Deardoff and previous city councils has left Hutchinson in a much better position than some cities are now.
"Cities that did a good job of maintaining financial reserves will have the luxury of spending some of those in combination with some of these downsizing efforts," Cantrell said. "Through those combined efforts, I think we'll be in a pretty good position here."
Cantrell said the City Council will get a menu of possible options for cuts if more are needed and make those decisions in public meetings.