The books aren’t as bad as was first expected for this year’s budget in the city of Kamloops.

Finance director Kathy Humphrey says net revenue losses to the end of September are now expected to be $5.6 million. That’s better than the original projection of a net loss of $7.8 million in that time frame.

Council had cut more than $7.2 million in spending earlier this spring to make up for the revenue shortfall brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So we aren’t coming to council asking you to change the budget. We may find that as the year goes on we may need to change that, but at this point operationally we can just sort of continue gradually opening things, and the balance of increasing expenditures and increasing revenues seem to be aligned.”

Humphrey says the cost of running the city is higher during the pandemic, and she expects council will have to make tough decisions in the budget down the road.