Season's Greetings .. The Budget is Done!
Merry Christmas/Hannucah/Duvali/Ramadan to all!
The budget is done for another year. Came out to be around $153 M and change with a property tax levy of $37,500,000. Almost $5 M is due to CIP (Capital Improvement Plans – traffic signals, streets, sidewalks, bike paths, parks, etc).
This year we started to work with department heads earlier in the year to discuss their projected needs for 2007. We’d been having department reviews since early summer so most all decisions regarding additional personnel, new projects, equipment etc had been discussed and agreed on in advance. Of course, all year long we’d identified needs across the board in the city, our individual wards, or projecting for the future so there wasn’t much new to work on this last week.
Mr. Kvenvold and all the department heads had taken our recommendation to keep headcount growth to a minimum, to not skimp on needed projects but to hold the line on new and additional ones, and in general to help us absorb the uncontrollable (to us) increases in utilities, fuel, materials, and to some extent the increases mandated for personnel by past contracts or by the state.
Our tax increases this year worked out something like this: Personnel Costs 62.6%; Utilities 10.5%; Contractual Services 8.4%; and Vehicle Fuels & Oils 5.6% --- Total 87% .
On the plus side we started to see some early savings due to a contract we executed earlier in the year with Johnson Controls Inc. JCI is looking at 20 of our properties and replacing motors, pumps, lights, etc with more efficient products. They guarantee a savings of $5.7 M over 12 years, enough to pay for the replacements or they pay the difference. The benefits continue and are projected for 25 to 30 years so this is a good thing for the city. We’ve seen some early reductions in utility costs already. The traffic lamp replacement program with LED lamps has reduced that bill significantly already.
Anyway, if your property value stays the same as last year (the COUNTY does this assessment) then we’ve projected that you may see an increase in your city portion of the property tax of from .3 to .5%.
If you have any questions, comments, whatever, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Bob
The budget is done for another year. Came out to be around $153 M and change with a property tax levy of $37,500,000. Almost $5 M is due to CIP (Capital Improvement Plans – traffic signals, streets, sidewalks, bike paths, parks, etc).
This year we started to work with department heads earlier in the year to discuss their projected needs for 2007. We’d been having department reviews since early summer so most all decisions regarding additional personnel, new projects, equipment etc had been discussed and agreed on in advance. Of course, all year long we’d identified needs across the board in the city, our individual wards, or projecting for the future so there wasn’t much new to work on this last week.
Mr. Kvenvold and all the department heads had taken our recommendation to keep headcount growth to a minimum, to not skimp on needed projects but to hold the line on new and additional ones, and in general to help us absorb the uncontrollable (to us) increases in utilities, fuel, materials, and to some extent the increases mandated for personnel by past contracts or by the state.
Our tax increases this year worked out something like this: Personnel Costs 62.6%; Utilities 10.5%; Contractual Services 8.4%; and Vehicle Fuels & Oils 5.6% --- Total 87% .
On the plus side we started to see some early savings due to a contract we executed earlier in the year with Johnson Controls Inc. JCI is looking at 20 of our properties and replacing motors, pumps, lights, etc with more efficient products. They guarantee a savings of $5.7 M over 12 years, enough to pay for the replacements or they pay the difference. The benefits continue and are projected for 25 to 30 years so this is a good thing for the city. We’ve seen some early reductions in utility costs already. The traffic lamp replacement program with LED lamps has reduced that bill significantly already.
Anyway, if your property value stays the same as last year (the COUNTY does this assessment) then we’ve projected that you may see an increase in your city portion of the property tax of from .3 to .5%.
If you have any questions, comments, whatever, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Bob
posted by Bob Nowicki | 8:31 PM
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8 comments
