Cuts Coming for Jefferson City

A $1.66 million deficit in Jefferson City will mean cuts across several departments. This week, the city staff released a document with questions about possible cuts in city government. The document was nearly 20 pages. Twelve of those pages were from the police department’s possible cuts. ABC 17 News talked to several city council members Tuesday; some said they had not had a chance to review the document, while others declined our interview request until the council could meet next Monday.Some of the potential cuts in the document included one week furloughs for all city employees to save $285,000. A complete elimination of the JCTV public access grant would save about $110,000, but wouldn’t happen until next year. An elimination of the JeffTran bus funding could save $450,000, nearly one third of the city’s deficit. The police department was asked to review several cost cutting measures.The Fraternal Order of Police said Tuesday that ending $50,000 from the animal shelter would be detrimental. Included in the document was a council inquiry into why the department was buying police SUVs instead of sedans. They said there was only about a $1,500 difference in price and a one mile per-gallon difference in fuel costs. To review the complete list of questions to the council and the police department report, click below.