GOSHEN — The city budget for 2013 was given a first reading at Tuesday night’s Goshen City Council meeting, but the topic most discussed was how trash pickup would be paid for.

For the 2013 budget, the cost of trash pickup was deleted with the expectation that there would be further discussion on how best to pay for the service.

Mayor Allan Kauffman said he would prefer covering the cost using the rainy day fund and avoid using general operating funds if possible.

The proposal was met with some opposition from the public and skepticism from several councilmembers.

Councilman Tom Stump said he believed the council would agree to pay for some of the cost with rainy day funds, but not the entire $800,000 it would take to pay for the service.

Everett Thomas, another councilman, noted the council was left with two options. The council could either agree to use rainy day funds or propose $800,000 of cuts from the proposed budgets.

“Good luck finding $800,000, I mean, that takes a lot of moving stuff around,” Kauffman responded. He added that he believed he didn’t think it was the right decision to cut other services in order to pay for trash pickup.

“I’m not real happy with taking money from the rainy day fund,” resident Glenn Null said. “I’m not happy with spending that kind of money for what the mayor wants to spend it on.”

Stump reiterated his stance that he’d be agreeable to use some of the rainy day funds to help pay for trash removal but added that the council should look into trying to cut a couple thousand dollars from the budget so it would not be paid for entirely by rainy day funds.

The second reading of the 2013 budget will occur at the Oct. 23 meeting of city council.