After deep budget cuts, Norfolk has ended up with a surplus of money. So why are the libraries and rec centers still closed?

A better-than-expected budgetary briefing Saturday prompted several Norfolk City Council members to ask why the city isn’t using millions of dollars it had left over last year to reopen libraries and recreation centers.

Hefty budget cuts — which included shuttering libraries and rec centers for an indefinite period and laying off or furloughing staff — combined with better-than-expected tax revenues meant that the city ended the last fiscal year in July with $3.6 million on hand, budget director Greg Patrick told the council during its retreat Saturday.

Patrick also said new projections indicate the city might finish the current year with around $2.5 million more than it expected when it made its budget in the spring while in the early throes of the pandemic.

But that current-year surplus could evaporate with even a tiny change, Patrick warned.

He and City Manager Chip Filer urged the City Council to sock away the money in its reserve fund, a kind of rainy-day fund that cities keep on hand in case of major unexpected expenses.

But that didn’t sit well with a few council members who thought it would be better to pump that money back into services for the city’s residents, such as reopening some closed facilities.

Andria McClellan said she’s had a hard time answering questions from her constituents about why Norfolk’s libraries and rec centers remain largely closed while those kinds of facilities have opened in other cities.

“We haven’t touched our economic downturn reserve. If this isn’t an economic downturn, I don’t know what is,” McClellan said.

Councilman Tommy Smigiel, noting that $3.6 million is equivalent to a 2-cent hike on real estate tax rates, agreed with McClellan. He said he wanted to see money go back into public-facing services like libraries and roads.

“I’d rather (taxpayers) see this money,” he said. “They don’t want to see it stored away somewhere.”

The budget director and the city manager pushed back against the idea of using the money to fund an ongoing expense like the operation of a library.

They warned that if Norfolk funds ongoing expenses — like opening libraries and bringing back staff — this year, the city will be back in the same position next year, trying to figure out how to pay for continuing costs once the $3.6 million pot of money is gone.

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“I cannot entertain any conversations about bringing furloughed employees back, because that’s ongoing,” Filer said. However, he said a one-time project like resurfacing a road could be funded with that money without putting pressure on future budgets.

Councilman Martin Thomas echoed those concerns, saying the best thing to do in the long term is to save the money to keep from endangering things like the city’s bond rating, which would cost Norfolk in the long-run in the form of higher interest rates.

Ultimately, nothing was decided. Filer said he would come back to council with some ideas on how to use some or all of the money on one-time projects.

The presentation Saturday also forecast more budget issues on the horizon. With the current level of services, Patrick said the city would need $22 million more in revenue than it’s projecting this year to balance the books.

If the city expected to fully reopen all facilities, it would be even more.

“This is a heavy piece of reality,” Filer told the council.

Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com