City employees will face a health insurance cost increase for the upcoming fiscal year, but it will not take effect until next January.
Ryan Ewalt, chief operating officer, said the administration will absorb a three percent increase starting in July.
However, he said a six percent increase in January will be passed on to employees.
He said the benchmark is for the employer to cover about 80 percent of health insurance premiums and the employees 20 percent. He said the city is currently out of kilter since it is covering 81 percent.
At the same time, Mayor Tim Kelly said $3.5 million was set aside for raises for non-sworn employees.
At annual City Council budget hearings, Finance Director Vickie Haley said revenues are projected at $329 million. That is up from the current $317 million.
She said, "The city is fiscally strong."
Ms. Haley said the budget for city judge is down $717,000. That is due to the retirement of Judge Russell Bean and abolishment of the division of the court he presided in.
She said the savings will be more next year. This budget only reflected four months of savings.
Council members said the City Court judge budget could go down more if the new Administrative Hearing Officer begins to handle cases that now are in court.
The AHO will be a contract employee and will likely preside at the Development Resource Center.
Officials said IT is being pulled from the various departments back into the IT office. Mr. Ewalt said that has already resulted in savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars as IT is better able to avoid duplicate contracts.