This story first appeared in the Lede, a digital news publication delivered to our subscribers every morning. Go here to subscribe.
Athens Police officers are looking into minor reports by phone or through email rather than making actual visits to the place of the incidents.
But Madison County Sheriff’s deputies are still answering their calls as they normally do despite gas prices rising to record levels.
Governments in the Huntsville metro area may be using different methods to cope with the rising cost of fuel, but officials all admit their budgets are taking a hit.
“We’re going to do our job no matter what,” Madison County Sheriff Kevin Turner said. “We’ve got to answer every call that is given to us. It’s just the price we have to pay in our budget to go out and answer our calls. … If we need to add more money to that budget, we’ll go to the (Madison County) Commission and ask for an adjustment.”
As of June 29, the average price for regular gasoline was $4.45 per gallon and $5.50 for diesel according to AAA. The prices have actually dropped from a couple of weeks ago, when motorists were paying a record $4.60 for a gallon of gas and $5.61 for diesel on June 14.
But metro governments and residents were paying $2.77 for gas and $2.98 for diesel just a year ago.
In response, Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson said his department has also “cut down on out-of-town trips to pick up a people on some select minor traffic warrants.”
“We continue to monitor prices and have a couple of other options if we end up having to implement them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the City of Huntsville has increased fuel line items by $1 million through mid-year for its departments that have fleets, Finance Director Penny Smith said.
“At the time, gas prices were a little above $4,” she said. “We’re continuing to track that. Right now, we’re good. If it continues to rise, we may need to adjust.”
Police, fire and rescue, public works, construction trucks, sewer and inspection departments are being affected the most.
“The departments will make the cuts if they are necessary,” Smith said, but she said the revenue isn’t tracking that way. Revenue is still coming in above projections.
2021 total already matched
According to Chief Financial Director Carol Long, Madison County has spent $1.7 million on fuel across its departments so far this fiscal year. That is as much as the County spent all of last year.
“And we still have three more months to go,” she said.
And while the Sheriff’s Department is conducting business as usual, that may not be the case for other departments.
“This is something that is brutal on all local governments and families,” Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong said. “The Madison County Commission is getting hit also. There are some vehicles that go home on an on-call status. We’re looking potentially at parking those. Right now, we’re able to sustain with our reserves .”
In Athens, city officials voted on its electric department budget on June 28. That’s because the beginning of the fiscal year for the department begins July 1 in alignment with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
“Simply put, our fuel expenses have doubled over the past year,” said Athens Electric Department Manager Blair Davis, whose department supplies electricity to all Limestone County, including parts annexed by Huntsville, Madison and Decatur. “Our FY23 budget has a 100% increase in expected fuel cost.”
The rest of Athens’ departments still have three months to go.
“We are at 66.7% of budget year, and I am at 82% of my budget for fuel,” Street Department Director Dolph Bradford said. “Sanitation has already used 91% of their budget for fuel and oil.”
As is the case with Huntsville, the city is still seeing revenues come in above projections. Because of that, Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks does not see departments having to make cuts.
“We’re trying to be as cautious as we can,” the mayor said. He said department budgets are reviewed on a monthly basis.
“It is very much a concern of ours,” Marks added. “The police department as a matter of fact, as with other departments, we’re going to do as much as we can via emails, telephone calls, trying to address our citizens’ concerns and yet continue to do our business. We still have to go out for building inspections and those other kind of things.”
Marks said fuel costs “will certainly cut down our end of the year revenue stream.”
“We’ll just adjust as we have to,” he said. “And if we do have to look at cutting expenses, we will look and see what priorities we’ll give to those. Right now, we do not expect to do that.”
End of year impact
Marks said record gas prices could affect purchases made by the city after revenues come in at the end of the fiscal year. He said revenues last year came in about $3 million more than expenses.
That enabled the city to buy vehicles for the police, fire and sanitation department.
Madison Mayor Paul Finley said his city has seen about a 50% increase in fuel cost.
“We’ve gone from about $35,000 a month average to about $51,000-$52,000 a month average in fuel cost for the city,” he said.
As is the case with other governments in the metro, he said the city budgets conservatively and does not expect departments to have to make budget cuts.
“We always put a little extra in there knowing it could go up,” Finley said. “But we certainly did not factor this high of an increase. We’ll be fine. We have it in contingency.”
He said revenues are still outpacing expenses, but concedes “It just won’t leave us as much at the end. In the big scheme of things, it’s not the end of the world.”
Finley said the biggest impact will be on budgeting for next fiscal year.
“By the time you get done, you’re looking at $150,000, $200,000 a year extra,” he said. “That’s simply going to take away from another project that you might be able to do.”
Scott Turner reports from Huntsville for The Lede.
