Atlantic City's 2013 budget got little discussion as it was introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
The proposed $245.8 million budget was accepted in a consent agenda that included about 30 items.
It's a less than 1 percent increase over last year's proposed $244.3 million budget, Finance and Revenue Director Michael Stinson said.
Numbers are not yet available on what the budget could mean for taxpayers, he said.
"We introduced the budget tonight, and now the hard work begins," Council President William "Speedy" Marsh said just before the meeting ended.
Councilman Steven Moore, who heads the Finance and Revenue Committee, asked the others on the dais to meet with their respective department heads to have dates set to discuss spending.
After the meeting, Moore likened the move to Senate budget hearings.
"I'm just trying to get things in order, to a point where we can really work with the budget and dissect it," he said.
He said the good news is, that "it's not an exorbitant budget. We're hoping we can be really good to the taxpayers of Atlantic City."
"I'm positive it's barebones, but we want to see what else we can get done," Marsh told the public.
The amount to be raised by taxes at this time is about $209 million, an increase from last year of just less than $5 million.
Mayor Lorenzo Langford was not at Wednesday night's meeting.
Moore said he hopes to have the budget back by the end of the month.
Since the city is still under state oversight, approval must come from there as well. Last year, that happened in May.
