With the city’s debt status in relatively good shape and a continuing effort to improve the city’s fiscal health, Washington is positioning itself to adopt a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that likely would keep taxes and most, if not all, fees at existing levels.

Perhaps, if city taxpayers are lucky enough and city leaders plan wisely, there may come a day in the near future when those taxes and fees could be reduced. Impossible, you say. Well, maybe, maybe not.

One thing is for sure. The city’s elected officials and city staff are doing their best to balance expenses with revenues. Councilman Doug Mercer, a fiscal watchdog when it comes to city dollars, believes their best efforts are yet to come. Mercer never met a city budget that did not need cutting. But he’s not the only City Council member with such thoughts. Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson also keeps a close eye on the balance between expenses and revenues. Council colleagues and veterans Richard Brooks and William Pitt, along with newcomer Larry Beeman, are showing they also have concerns with finding that balance between expenses and revenues, without reducing the level of service city residents expect — and pay for with their taxes.

Among the council’s major fiscal accomplishments in recent years has been the continued reduction in the amount of money transferred each year from the city’s electric fund to the city’s general fund. In those recent years, the council has cut that annual transfer from about $1.1 million to $470,000, the transfer amount in the existing budget. The council’s goal is to eliminate that annual transfer.

The challenge is to find revenue to replace the money being transferred from the electric fund to the general fund. The council, mayor and city staff have the experience and desire needed to successfully meet that challenge.