By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Another look at the proposed 2016 budget for the city of Hays revealed a “totaling error,” according to City Manager Toby Dougherty.

“The total for all funds decreased by a dollar,” Dougherty told city commissioners Thursday night. “So I guess we’re saving money already,” he joked.

The 2016 budget was presented to commissioners last week. They’ll have another chance to review it during the August 6 work session.

The three commissioners present during Thursday’s meeting voted to set a public hearing date of Aug. 13 for the 2016 budget.

“Once you set the public hearing, the finance director will publish a mill levy and a total dollar amount. That can’t go up after you set the public hearing,” Dougherty explained. “You can make all kinds of changes to the budget itself; you just can’t increase the amount of dollars you’re spending after the public hearing is set. That’s not an issue. You guys can make a lot of changes to the budget and not increase the expenditures.”

The proposed 2016 budget total is $37,420,454 with a mill levy of 25.000. The mill levy remains the same as it was in the adopted 2015 budget of $35,807,301.

“I thought the review the other night was pretty clear-cut,” said Mayor Eber Phelps.

Dougherty asked the commissioners for a consensus on the funding for outside agencies during the Aug. 6 work session.

“Right now, they’re left at 2015 levels … but a couple of them asked for slightly different amounts,” he said.

Commissioners Shaun Musil and Henry Schwaller were absent from the meeting.