Lake City Report -
August 6, 2010
Budget Planning Complete -
No City Layoffs
Columbia County, FL (Posted August 9, 2010 11:00
am)
by City Manager Wendell Johnson and
staff
From City Manager Wendell Johnson
Fiscal Year 2011 City Budget
The City Council and Staff concluded the FY
2010/2011 Budget Workshop process this week. The
Tentative and Final Budget Hearings for the new
fiscal year are scheduled for September 7, 2010
and September 21, 2010.
The City’s budget deliberations started on
March 29th and four budget workshops were held.
The City is meeting the challenges of a
difficult budget year. Here are a few
highlights:
Ad Valorem and General Fund Revenues.
The City will experience an approximate $30
million decline in Gross Tax Value for FY 2011.
Overall, the City’s General Fund deficit is
nearly $1.3 million. To compensate for the
deficit, the City reduced its General Fund
operating costs for FY 2011 by about $500,000
and will draw $787,000 from the General Fund
reserve.
Fund Reserves
All of the City’s fund reserves remain stable
with positive balances within each fund. For FY
2011, the City has established a Water/Sewer
Fund Reserve “set aside” to begin building these
reserves to a more desirable level. The plan
calls for a practice of setting aside no less
than $250,000 annually to the Water/Sewer fund
reserves. The General Fund Reserve remains at an
acceptable level and again this year provides
flexibility for withdrawal to sustain the City’s
operational and capital needs in the face of
declining revenues and escalating costs.
Revenue Generation/Cost Reductions
The City established and/or is considering
several opportunities for the coming year as a
means to enhance the budget and to provide for
improved services. Among the more significant of
these initiatives, the “general purpose” vehicle
fleet will begin transition this year under a
new leasing program from Enterprise, Inc.
The first 30 vehicles will be operational by
the end of September 2010. The transition of
another 60-70 vehicles will occur during the
next four years and the end result will be all
general purpose vehicles will be on a five-year
rotation. The expected savings of this
initiative is $175,000 annually.
Another measure is the implementation of a
“stormwater” assessment fee to fund the City’s
already established Stormwater Utility Fund. The
City will move forward with the evaluation of
this opportunity and if feasible, the assessment
will be effective during the first quarter of
2011. If implemented, the projected
revenue for the fund would be $350,000 to
$450,000 annually which will be used exclusively
for stormwater improvements and upgrades.
Personnel costs
Hiring Freeze – Still in force for FY 2011
Lay Offs – No layoffs planned or expected. Merit
Increases – Funding is in the FY 2011 budget for
25% of City employees to receive a 3% merit
increase. City employees have not received COLA
and/or merit increases for several years.
Health and Risk Insurance Costs
The City will evaluate health costs to
minimize and or eliminate a proposed 12 to 18%
cost increase ($250,000 - $400,000) on the
existing health plan. The FY 2011 Budget does
not account for any increase in health costs.
Debt Restructuring General Fund – Sales Tax
Bond Series 1998 and 2000 were repackaged to
generate $2,000,000 in new General Fund Capital
Needs revenue. Utilities Fund – Utility Bonds
Series 1996 and 2000 were repackaged to lower
debt by $490,000 and generate $18,000,000 in
revenue for Waste Water Treatment plant upgrades
and improvements.
Capital Needs Funding (five-year schedule)
The City has established a relationship with
the North Central Florida Regional Planning
Council (RPC) to assist in preparing a five-year
“Capital Improvement Plan” as an approach for
identifying and funding the City’s most pressing
capital improvement needs.
The RPC has agreed to provide services to
prepare the project plan, which will involve
upgrades to streets, walkways and drainage, as
well as water distribution and sewer collection
systems.
Funding will consist of Sales Tax Revenue,
Utility User Fees, CRA Trust Funds, CDBG Funds,
and Water/Sewer Enterprise Funds. The project
timeline funding range is anticipated to be $4
to $6 million.
The City Staff Report is available in pdf format
here.