Mobile’s City Council pushed through significant changes to Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s proposed 2015 budget this week, voting 6-1 to approve a spending plan while the mayor was out of town in Washington, D.C. lobbying for the proposed Interstate 10 bridge project.
The approved budget, which takes effect Oct. 1, now heads back to Stimpson’s desk for possible reconsideration. Under the city’s charter, the mayor has 10 days to propose vetoes on any part of the council’s action, and it would take five council votes to override any veto he issues. Stimpson’s chief of staff, Colby Cooper, said the administration was still reviewing the amendments. “We are pleased that it passed,” Cooper said, adding that executive staff planned to meet to discuss the changes in detail.
The council’s amendments included three major shifts from Stimpson’s original proposal. First, members approved shifting $2.5 million from the city’s Capital Fund into the General Fund specifically to help cover retiree health care costs, passing that piece 5-1 with Councilman Joel Daves opposed and Councilwoman Bess Rich abstaining. The move came after weeks of criticism from city retirees over planned changes to their health coverage, though the council did not alter increases planned for active employees, whose cost-sharing arrangement is set to shift from an 84/16 split to 80/20 starting in January.
Second, the council dedicated $1.5 million within the Parks and Recreation budget toward a proposed soccer complex near Interstates 10 and 65, an idea pushed by County Commissioner Connie Hudson in the weeks leading up to the vote. That funding would likely draw from the extra $3 million Stimpson had proposed for general park improvements. Councilmen Daves and John Williams both voted against that allocation.
Third, the council approved $5.2 million in performance contract funding for a range of local nonprofit organizations that had faced steep cuts under Stimpson’s original budget. To offset that cost, the council trimmed $400,000 from planned new police and fire vehicle purchases and eliminated another $400,000 tied to a fee-waiver approval process the mayor’s office had proposed for rental and overtime waivers. That amendment passed 5-2, with Williams and Rich voting no.
Retired Mobile firefighter Michael Farver praised the retiree health care shift, calling it a “great” move by the council. “When they hired us to work for the city, you worked for your pension and insurance,” Farver said. “Now they are trying to back up and change their minds.” Under Stimpson’s original proposal, roughly 775 Medicare-eligible retirees would have received a $175 monthly subsidy toward supplemental coverage that phases out after four years, while about 381 non-Medicare retirees faced monthly premium increases from $54 to $103 for single coverage and from $140 to $210 for family coverage.
With the budget now formally passed, attention turns to whether Stimpson will use his veto authority on any of the council’s amendments once his administration completes its review, or whether the negotiated changes will stand as the final word on the city’s spending plan for the year ahead.