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The City of Page has placed a hiring freeze on all open positions due to the COVID-19 issue. We have also been asked to move to a “necessary spend only” for operating costs for the final quarter of the fiscal year. Major purchases that were budgeted in FY 2020 and not made yet, have been placed on hold and are brought before the City Manager and City Council on an individual basis for approval. We have had to make the difficult decision to lay off 27 of our employees in the month of April 2020.
For the FY 2021 Budget, most travel expenses have been cut or drastically reduced except for mandatory travel/training only. We have taken a hard look at our future capital projects and have pushed many of the projects that could be pushed, out to FY 2022 for budgeting and completion. All performance/COLA increases have been taken out of the budget for FY 2021. We have looked at 23 of our vacant positions that were yet to be filled in the FY 2020 budget year, and have eliminated the majority of these from being filled in FY 2021.
Page does not have any other dedicated revenue source outside of Sales Tax, and with the COVID-19 Federal/State mandates and business closures, we are not going to see that sales tax revenue come in. Being tourism is our main revenue generator, we have already begun to see the downturn of lost revenue and are trying to prepare for what is to come as many City’s are experiencing similar outcomes.
