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West Wendover will now have to address next years budget without the help of City Accountant.
Sondra Schmidt, City Chief Financial Officer, tendered her resignation last week to West Wendover Mayor Donnie Andersen.
“I really didn’t want to leave,” Schmidt said Monday. “But facing a ten percent cut in pay versus a 45 percent raise at the new job, I had to think about my family first.”
According to Schmidt she will become the new Chief Financial Officer for Humboldt County in Winnemucca. That position had been open since December. Schmidt interviewed for the position earlier last week and was tentatively offered the job that same day.
In addition to paying significantly more Winnemucca is much closer to her ranch in south eastern Oregon.
Schmidt departure could not come at a least fortuitous time for the city. Facing a budget deficit described as massive, there has been but one budget meeting so far this year. While department heads like Schmidt were forced to take a ten percent pay cut, West Wendover’s unionized work force has reportedly refused a similar reduction in pay.
Hit by a combination of over building, the Great Recession and an ‘unexpected’ 10 percent drop in population West Wendover is facing a sea of red ink, that must be drained before the start of the next fiscal year and cannot be fixed by printing more money.
“By law we have to balance our budget,” said Mayor Donnie Andersen. “And we have to work together to do it.”
At the heart of the city’s fiscal woes is the mortgage payments on the new city hall.
Originally slated to cost $5.5 million when first proposed four years ago the building was let out to bid for $7.5 million last year and since then additional cost is pushing the total cost of the project to the $8 million mark and perhaps beyond it.
But as the cost of the project increase the revenues projected to pay off the building loans either fell or were not realized at all.
With the onset of national recession two years ago, an estimated steady long term increase in tax revenue looks at least overly optimistic.
According to projections the General Fund revenue growth was expected to generally increase for the next 11 years.
In addition to those fiscal woes the city was hit with even more bad news this month when the US census reported that there are now 4,410 people in Wendover a drop of 6.6 percent from the 4,721 counted in 2000 and more importantly a drop of more than 10 percent from its estimated population of a bout 5,000 from the state demographers office.
West Wendover share in a number of state funds is either directly or indirectly determined on a per capita basis. Fewer people mean fewer dollars and the city is already strapped for cash.
According to Andersen the biggest hit to West Wendover’s budget has perhaps yet to land.
Faced with a budget defective its own of about $1 billion the state of Nevada is expected to siphon off any loose funds from every county, district and city it can legally take.
“It could be brutal,” Andersen added.
