Merced council to consider next year’s budget

The Merced City Council will consider the municipal budget and a proposed fee reduction during its meeting on Monday.

After three town hall meetings and a budget priority session, the council will hold its final public hearing on the 2016-17 budget.

The city has proposed a core budget of $38,839,738 and $3,483,613 in one-time expenditures.

The council’s priorities were public safety, economic development and youth services.

Also on the agenda is consideration of suspending collection of the Regional Transportation Impact Fee on new developments for two years.

Other cities in the county have stopped collecting the fees on major commercial projects, which puts Merced at a competitive disadvantage, according to city leaders. The fees can be used to pay for large transportation projects such as Mission Avenue improvements or the Los Banos Bypass.

A study planned for 2017 will look at the feasibility of the city continuing in the transportation fee program.

City Council meetings are streamed live on the internet. A link to the live meeting is on the city’s website at https://cityofmerced.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Videos of previous meetings are linked to each agenda item. Those services are in addition to the live broadcast of the regular meeting on Comcast’s Government Channel 96.

The agenda is available at www.cityofmerced.org and outside the Council Chamber before the meeting.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the second floor of the Merced Civic Center, 678 W. 18th St.

This story was originally published June 19, 2016 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Merced council to consider next year’s budget."