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T~ESDAY, APRIL 19, 1988
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<br />At the conclusion of the School Board's presentation, Councilman McClain
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<br />presented a prepared statement entitled, "Budget Analysis" (for 1988-89), which
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<br />follows:
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<br />With no new fees, taxes or utility rate increases and with
<br />transfers as recommended by the City Manager and approved by
<br />Council yesterday, total General Fund Revenue for 1988-1989 is
<br />projected to be $20,165,897. General Fund Surplus at 7/1/88 is
<br />projected to be $1,766,793. While the City Manager has
<br />recommended a major contingency reserve of $500,000 to $700,000,
<br />consistently, year in and year out, the City Administration has
<br />underspent the Budget. The Budget last year provided for General
<br />Fund Surplus to be $507,001 at June 30, 1988. Now, however, it is
<br />projected to be $1,766,793 indicating that $1,259,792 of
<br />appropriations made last year were ,~ .speB[. Therefore, I, for
<br />one, would be comfortable with a major contingency reserve of
<br />$300,000, with full confidence that the City Administration's
<br />careful management of the Budget will result in a General Fund
<br />Surplus larger than $300,000 at June 30, 1989.
<br />
<br />If other members of Council are comfortable with this approach, we
<br />would then have a total of $21,632,690 in the General Fund
<br />available to appropriate for the 1988-1989 fiscal year. Total
<br />proposed expenditures in the Budget as recommended by the City
<br />Manager are $21,923,365. Therefore, in order to balance the
<br />Budget, we need to find reductions in proposed expenditures of
<br />$290,675. These reductions must be found in Agency budgets, the
<br />school budget and the departmental budgets under the supervision
<br />of the City Manager. It appears to me that reductions of $52,000
<br />and perhaps more can be found in the Agency budgets and reductions
<br />of around $128,000 in the Departmental budgets appear to me to be
<br />relatively obvious. These actions would leave' $110,675 of
<br />additional reductions which must be found. While I realize the
<br />school budget is tight this year, I do not believe it would be
<br />fair to allow the schools to escape entirely the pain of our
<br />budgetary problems. Therefore, I would recommend that the
<br />majority of the additional reductions required of $100,675 be
<br />required to be found by the School Board. If anyone would like me
<br />to be more specific with regard to Agency or Departmental
<br />reductions included within the above totals, I would be pleased to
<br />enumerate them.
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<br />It is my opinion that, at this time, the vast majority of our
<br />citizens would prefer to see us find reductions in expenditures
<br />with which to balance our Budget rather than to impose upon them
<br />additional taxes, fees or utility rate increases. At the same
<br />time, I realize that additional fees and utility rate increases
<br />are virtually inevitable as soon as Fiscal Year 1989-1990, if our
<br />revenues from anticipated growth in the community and consumption
<br />of our utility services do not increase significantly.
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