ELYRIA — Living paycheck to paycheck is no longer reserved for just ordinary folks.

The city of Elyria will have to do it, too, until the end of the year, as it will have little to no cash on hand after October, said city Auditor Ted Pileski.

While the city’s finances have been bad all year, October reached an all-time low, Pileski said.

Income tax distribution dropped 19 percent from what was received in October 2008. It is the largest single monthly drop of the year.

“Basically, we will be living from income tax distribution to income tax distribution,” he said. “It’s not good when you are at a point where you have no money to make payroll without getting additional money in, but that’s where we are at right now.”

Mayor Bill Grace said it is possible that additional cuts will have to be made before the end of the year because of the city’s dire financial picture.

“The budget calls for us to be right at the edge of (being in the red),” he said. “We have budgeted to spend just about everything we bring in.”

Pileski said Nov. 2 — when the city will receive income tax revenue — can’t come soon enough.

“We are going to be closing October with very little money,” Pileski said. “Of the cash we have remaining in the general fund, we will have enough to cover payroll and bills.”

Payroll is a big expense for the city, but each month the city must also put money into the health insurance fund, pension account, pay the utilities for all city buildings and buy gasoline and office supplies.

With that in mind, Pileski said he will likely lower his revenue estimates yet again for the year and will ask City Council to adjust the general fund budget again to balance the books for the year. Now that the jail is closed and eight more firefighters have been laid off in the Fire Department, their budgets can be adjusted to reflect the need for less money.

“I’ve never seen the city like this before,” Pileski said. “This is not a good situation.”

Grace said the line item adjustments could save the budget for the year, but he doesn’t know.

“We can’t predict what the revenue is going to be,” he said. “We predicted this year would be bad, and it has been worse. Most of our revenue is based on employment in the city. If that continues to drop, so will our revenue.”

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.