Riverton » In this south valley town of 38,000, City Hall staffers now take out their own trash and vacuum their own offices --- office workers even shovel the walks in the winter.
Stretching a municipal budget in these troubled economic times is tough --- and necessary.
In Riverton, during the past year, 15 staff positions have been eliminated. That's an even 15 percent reduction as the city's workforce was slashed from 100 employees to 85.
The cuts came as the town's budget shrank 20 percent during the two-year period from $10.8 million in fiscal year 2006-07 to $8.8 million in fiscal year 2008-09 that ended June 30.
Remaining employees are taking on more responsibilities to keep the city from cutting services, said Mayor Bill Applegarth.
"Our employees are working their hearts out," Applegarth said.
In some cases, the city has contracted for services to save money, according to City Manager Lance Blackwood.
Eight full-time parks employees were laid off. Maintenance of Riverton parks and open space has been taken over by a private firm. The contract saves the city about $200,000 a year.
"I don't think the parks have looked better," Blackwood said. "But the casualties were the employees [who were let go]. It was real tough."
In other cases, employees are taking on expanded roles, Blackwood said.
For example, Riverton used to have a Public Works Department director and a City Engineer. The Public Works director was laid off and now the City Engineer takes on the responsibilities of both positions.
In another instance, the stormwater manager now also is running the street sweeper.
"People are doing double duty," Blackwood said. "But the services are still there."
Riverton, like most municipalities, relies on a variety of revenue streams, including property tax, sales tax, development fees and interest on fund balances.
In fiscal year 2008-09, the Riverton City Council raised property taxes, bringing that revenue from an annual total of about $500,000 up to $1.5 million.
But for the past two years, sales tax and development fees have been way off. Interest earnings also are down.
In fiscal year 2007-08, Riverton projected an income of $5.3 million in sales tax, but realized only $4.5 million. Totals for 2008-09 are not yet available.
"We live and die by sales tax," Blackwood said. "We just got clobbered."
Forecasting city revenue streams has been difficult over the pasts two years, said Finance Director Lisa Dudley. The budget for the new fiscal year doesn't assume the economy will perk up. But it also doesn't predict things will get worse, she said.
The municipality can gauge income from property tax and to a certain degree can judge development fees by previous building approvals. But sales tax is much more difficult to predict.
"We all wish we had a magic crystal ball," Dudley said. "We have historical data. But when the economy slumps, all things slump and [sales tax] is an unknown."
Like everyone else, Riverton officials are hoping the economy rebounds soon. In the meantime, according to Blackwood, they'll "be looking under every rock" for savings.
The budget constraint, he said, "really forces you to make sure you're doing everything as efficiently as possible."
