Hey! You missed our recent pre-budget meeting. Here are some of the points that came up.
We are planning (very preliminarily) on about a 6% drop in assessed values due to the recession. That translates to about a 6% decrease in the revenues our City will receive from local ad valorum taxes. That will equal about $329,000 less revenue for the City. With other factors thrown in (increase in parking ticket revenue, increase in electric franchise tax fees, increase in EMS funding, $61K for SPB Classic revenue) we look to have an overall decrease of about $10,000.
But, I am not comfortable that includes potential decreases in monies we normally receive from the County and the State. We'll see.
Some of the assumptions we discussed were no changes in the number of employees, a 4% salary increase and step increases for Fire (a total of $212K), an increase in pension contributions ($168K), lower extra legal costs ($100K), the inclusion of 4th of July fireworks ($30K), SPB classic expenses ($51K), Increase in Community Development planning ($100K), and a potential (get it?) electric savings due to efficiencies ($30K).
We currently are planning on a general fund transfer to CIPs of $475 to be used for road work, sea walls, sidewalks, etc. and a $331k increase in capital purchases for equipment and vehicles.
We do not yet have a detailed plan for general capital maintenance items for city facilities (painting, roof replacement, a/c's, etc.).
Currently we are on schedule for no increase in wastewater rates this coming year, a programmed 14% increase for reclaimed water and are working toward a second assessment for the storm water enterprise fund.
With all this taken into consideration, note that there are some significant unknowns, and before the City Manager reviews the numbers, and before your City Commission talks up our "important needs" we are about $300K to the good in the wastewater fund, balanced in the reclaimed water fund, and waiting on assessment revenue in the storm water fund.
As for the General Fund, we are $463K short. We do not operate short. We operate a balanced budget. At least that has been true the years I have been your City Commissioner.
Some other items of interest:
The Police Station will be paid off in 2013 and the voted debt service will be removed from the tax rolls.
We still have about $747K debit for City Hall and the Community Center.
We are projected to spend about $425K on Streets, Sidewalks, and Sea walls.
We will make the last payment on the Egan Park land purchase of $195K.
Longer term issues that need planning and funding are: Pass-A-Grille Way refurbishment, Blind Pass Road/Corey Avenue Couplet, a Marina project, determination of our 2 Fire Stations and the viability of maintaining them over the long term, development of Egan Park and review of the last remaining major public facility not to have been considered for renovation, the Library.
My closing thoughts:
We need to first preserve what we have (maintenance) and then leverage what we have for usability, additional services, and revenue opportunities and then we need to look at ways to reduce taxes.
We also need to be aware and develop contingency plans for State Legislature action on things like TABOR, Police assessments on property, homestead exemptions and caps and other actions that might impact our revenues and take away our Home Rule.
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