By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
The Bowie City Council this week began to dissect the 2019-20 budget draft during the first of what is expected to be several budget workshops, with the second planned for the regular meeting on July 22.
It was a lengthy meeting about three and half hours. The council heard from department heads who made their pitch for various equipment, improvements, staff and pay increases.
There were no decisions made on specific budget items other than directives for the staff to gather or provide additional figures or information.
City Manager Bert Cunningham has a year and half of experience under his belt as manager as he offered his second budget plan, which he said at this point is a deficit proposal.
He said counting depreciation, expenses outpace revenue by a good margin even after he went through each department and cut out items he deemed “excessive.”
The manager did not include any salary increases in the draft, but each department asked for increases in a different way often connected with performance. Read the full story in your weekend Bowie News.