Going into budget negotiations for fiscal year 2025, the Purcell City Council was forced to deal with an over $1 million shortfall, a consequence of forgetfulness when orchestrating the FY 2024 budget.

One year ago, the council approved a budget that neglected to account for an impending payment on sales tax revenue bonds from 2019.

The result? Cutbacks across departments.

In the special council meeting Monday night, Councilmember Allen Eubanks said last year’s budget was already projected at a loss.

Water Superintendent Michael Minor asked the council what the Purcell Public Works Authority and the water department can do to help.

“What you can do, from my perspective,” Eubanks said, “is manage the pennies as best as possible.”

Minor said he and his employees already do a lot of work in house, trying to save money whenever possible.

“We’re going to have to be helping each other out to make this work to get us through this tough period, but this wasn’t just one year in the making,” City Manager Sam Demel said. “It’s been a couple years that  this has been going on. It’s going to take us a little while to toughen it out, but we have to do it.”

According to Demel, year to date, the FY24 budget outcome is expected to be favorable with $161,000 left over.

In a budget workshop held Thursday, June 6, City Treasurer Victor Lohn gave councilmembers an analysis of the city’s capital improvement fund, which shows the city still has over $119,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding.

Any remaining ARPA funds not spent by Sept. 30, 2026, must be returned to the U.S. Treasury. The council currently intends to use the money to help pay for water meter battery replacements.

“It’s really important that we are good stewards of the taxpayers’ money because we serve the citizens of this community,” Mayor Graham Fishburn said.

“We’re going through a pretty significant change in our budgeting process,” he said. “I’m looking for it to improve and get even better next year, and I’m pretty happy with the overall product.”