By Khalida Sarwari
The Saratoga City Council earlier this month adopted its budget for the next fiscal year, a package that restores some positions and services lost in leaner years.
The fiscal year 2016-17 budget includes $20.2 million in revenue and $19.7 million in expenditures. Council members also approved a $13.1 million capital budget to fund major infrastructure projects, such as the Prospect Avenue median improvements, the Highway 9 safety improvements and the Quito Road bridges.
“Our city has a history of being very cautious with the city’s money,” Councilman Howard Miller said at a June 1 meeting, where the council adopted the final budget. “I think we weathered the [economic] downturn better than most cities.”
Miller said the new budget restores services and jobs cut during the economic downturn, including a code compliance officer position, and provides funding to replace or repair aging infrastructure.
“Not only does [the budget] provide us our funding that we need for the various services that we provide our community, but it also reflects our values in terms of our saving for the future so that we don’t go out and get loans,” said Mayor Manny Cappello.
Weeks before the budget’s adoption, Mary Furey, the city’s finance and administrative services director, summarized fiscal trends that impacted its development.
She said the city saw a hike in property taxes and development fees over the past year, which combined to increase the revenue stream by about $1 million. The city also expects to spend $881,774 more than last year on expenses such as an increase in salary and benefit costs, sheriff’s law enforcement services and higher internal service fund charges. Sheriff services alone increased by $203,093, or 4 percent jump, from last year.
But the main difference is the allocation of additional funds for outreach and code compliance efforts, according to Furey. Outreach funds will go toward giving staff the time to boost the city’s social media presence, website production and marketing and outreach materials.
And the hiring of a code compliance officer will go a long way toward improving the city’s policies, updating ordinances and responding to and following through on code enforcement functions, Furey said.
There’s also room in next year’s budget for any emergency repair projects that may arise, Furey said. Plus, there’s funding for previously approved projects that haven’t yet been completed and 10 new ones that also will be financed through other sources.
The budget also takes into account the city’s $500,000 scheduled payment in July toward its $7.7 million unfunded pension liability to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The council agreed to pay half of it last year in an attempt to stave off CalPERS’ high interest rates. The plan is to continue making $500,000 payments annually until the liability is paid off, which is estimated to take about 15 years.
Overall, the 2016-17 budget is a conservative one, Furey said.
“We expect the economy to continue along at a steady pace over the next fiscal year; however, we limit our expectations in revenue growth and also restrain expenditure growth as the economy will tighten up at some point in the future,” she said. “In short, the city of Saratoga’s approach is to be prepared.”
Vice Mayor Emily Lo commended Furey and her staff for producing a budget that she said “brings financial stability to our city.”
“I think we have been acting very prudently and carefully and cost-efficiently all these years,” Lo said.
Link:
Saratoga: City’s new budget restores services cut during the economic recession
