HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council took time to go over the general fund during a special budget meeting Thursday morning. The city is looking to eliminate a potential one mill increase.

The budget is further compressed by a 6/10ths of one percent drop in the city’s valuation, which is a loss of $90,000 to the general fund.

One area that was cut was the long-running Welcome Channel. The programming on cable channel 7 has recently been a target of the budget but has survived. It looks like that will end this year. The channel will still broadcast all city and county meetings and provide some other information, but the promotional material will end. The cut saves the county about $6,500.

As the Council is looking to cut more, they also heard a presentation from the Reno County Entrepreneurship Task Force. The group which was formed in 2017 is asking the city to pony up $30,000 to help fund a position and operation inside the Quest center to help business initiatives in the city and county. If the requests are met, the county will also pony up funds as well as the Hutchinson Community Foundation. The position would be called an Entrepreneurship Navigator and would provide necessary services to help start-up businesses.

The group is asking for a total of $210,000 this year from the three entities and eventually would like a total of $240,000 by the fifth year of operation.