By Khalida Sarwari
The city of Saratoga’s future appears to be bright. An improved economy and increased property tax revenues have resulted in a better financial outlook for the city than it has seen in years.
On May 15, the Saratoga City Council conducted a public hearing on the proposed $17 million operating and capital budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Following a short presentation by Mary Furey, the city’s finance and administrative services director, the council agreed to adopt the final budget on June 5.
“I’m very grateful for the financial position our city is in,” said Councilman Howard Miller. He requested that the final document reflect the allocation of $300,000 in year-end net operations to the brand-new facility replacement reserve.
Furey’s presentation touched upon various fiscal trends that had an impact on the budget. The city experienced a 6 percent increase in property tax revenues over the past year due to a healthy housing market, she said. More activity in the market resulted in increased revenues in two components of the property tax.
There also has been additional development activity in the city, she said, with a spike in building permits due to more remodeling projects, as well as an increase in construction tax revenues.
The combined revenues from those two sources will result in $600,000 in net operations for the 2013-14 fiscal year, Furey said.
She said the surplus will go toward restoring services that had either been cut or reduced. One such service is the building and planning counter, which had its hours cut to 7:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday. Once the city hires a permit technician, the plan is to keep the counter open until 5 p.m. during the week to accommodate increased building activity.
Other affected areas are the building department’s code enforcement and various positions, such as IT technician, human resources technician and accounting manager, all of which were either replaced with temporary workers or backfilled through contract service workers over the years. Most of those roles will revert to full-time staff positions, Furey said.
A portion of the budget will be allocated to new initiatives to be implemented next year, primarily due to the update of the city’s General Plan. One of these initiatives is the fuel reduction program to assist with fire prevention, a $25,000 ongoing operation that came about via the safety element update this year, Furey said. All in all, $90,000 has been appropriated in the budget for General Plan updates, and will include the noise element update next year.
Another component of the budget is the funding of reserves, specifically the hillside stability reserve, which will set aside money in case of landslides, and the facility replacement reserve for the rehabilitation of city buildings.
In the capital budget, the three main projects that Furey outlined as part of her presentation were the Prospect/Saratoga Corridor improvements; the Village sidewalk, curb and gutter repairs; and the citywide signal upgrade. She said the city has secured $4.2 million in funding from the One Bay Area grant program that it will match with $544,825 for the Prospect/Saratoga Corridor project. The Village project will be paid for with a $163,000 grant from the One Bay Area program and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The MTC also provided a $400,000 grant for the signal upgrade project, which the city will match with $100,000.
Financial forecast is looking bright for the city of Saratoga
