The Lima Finance Committee is breaking down the city’s 2023 proposed budget line by line.  Tuesday night, they started their first of three days of budget hearings.   The Mayor’s Office, Utilities, and Lima Municipal Court were just some of the departments on deck for the first night of hearings.  The city is looking good financially heading into the 2023 budget.  They have a carryover of $14 million, which is around 35% of the $45 million estimated budget for this year.  

A local expert spoke to Your Hometown Stations on why we are seeing cheaper prices at the gas pump. Former Saudi Aramco employee Steve Cleaves said this stems from an oil war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The two countries continue to up their production while the demand stays relatively where it has been. There has been a slight decrease in oil demand because of the coronavirus. Cleaves said Russia is attempting to control oil distribution in Europe and bankrupt the U.S oil shale and tar sand industry. The U.S. is attempting to block Russia from its distribution to Europe.

The Lima City Council Finance Committee kicked off its first day of 2020 budget review. The hearing began with a general review of the 2019 and 2020 budget. The estimated budget for 2020 is 38.2 million dollars, which is 5 percent more than last year. This is because of a union labor contract and increased healthcare spending. There was a carryover cash balance of 7.6 million dollars from 2019. The city's finance director expects the 2020 cash balance to remain above 7 million dollars. Overall he says the budget for 2020 is in good shape.

A recent drone strike against the center of Saudi Arabia’s oil production could shake the global economy and more. The attack has suspended the production of over 5 million barrels of oil a day. Steve Cleaves worked for Saudi Aramco for over 20 years and understands how the oil fields operate. He added, with the attack, if the world oil supply price per barrel goes up it’ll reciprocate in the U.S. Meaning more money spent at the fuel pumps.

Lima City Council unanimously voted to amend an ordinance that the public works director believes will help improve the flow of traffic. This is an ordinance looking to change an agreement with ODOT for the All-Lima- Wayne Street project. The $3 million traffic project will convert Wayne Street from a one-way street into a two way. It would also add new sidewalks and curbs on Wayne Street from Cole to Central streets. ODOT recently awarded the city $700,000 towards the project. The project will go to bid in the fall. Construction would start in the spring next year and it's expected to be finished by November of next year.

An ordinance requesting to increase the city's health care budget was officially passed by Lima City Council. The finance director requested an additional 1.2 million dollars to the already 7 million dollar health care city budget. The finance director says this addition is important because expenditures have rapidly increased over the last couple of years and the extra funds will help keep the cash balance at a healthy level.

Lima’s finance committee got a mid-year update on how their city budget is looking. 

The City of Lima is in good financial standing and they want to stay there.