Oklahoma City Council approves $9.2 million mid-year budget cut

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — The Oklahoma City Council has approved a $9.2 million mid-year budget reduction.

The City of Oklahoma City says the cuts match an amended sales tax projection for the fiscal year. The cuts were proposed during a Nov. 22 city council meeting.

39 positions were cut from the City of Oklahoma City and came from the following departments:

• 3 from Development Services
• 7 from Parks and Recreation
• 15 uniformed Police Department positions
• 3 civilian Police Department positions
• 5 from Public Works
• 6 from other departments

The city reports that 11 of the uniformed police cuts come from vacant police officer positions. Four of the positions are elementary school resource officers who will be assigned to other duties.

The fire department will not be staffing brush pumpers on days with low fire danger to reduce costs.

Oklahoma City now employees 4,660 full time employees after the cuts. The city sales tax revenue has fallen every month of 2016 in comparison to 2015. The revenue is expected to fall 2.6 percent for the fiscal year.