Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert has been in office 109 days and has already faced some major challenges.
She discussed some of these at the Omaha Press Club’s Noon Forum yesterday.
Mayor Stothert says she had to address the 2013 and 2014 city budgets as soon as she took office.
The city was six months into the 2013 budget year when she took over, and was already 13.5 million short.
Stothert says she didn’t want to fix the problem with a property tax increase.
"I met with all the department directors. We put a hiring freeze on. We cut back on open positions. We decided we had to run leaner and more efficiently. And at the budget report at the end of the last quarter, that 13.5 million for 2013 is down to a 5.5 million gap now. And if we keep on going like we’ve been going, by the end of the year, 2013 will be balanced.”
Mayor Stothert says she also cut her own salary, and froze it so that it will not increase over the next four years. Her office’s budget was cut by 11%.
Mayor Stothert’s presentation will air in its entirety on KIOS, Monday, October 14th at Noon.