Minutes 11/28/1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1988 noted no increase or decrease in the "Commonwealth. & L~caI Education" Revenue. We noted a minor problem in the category of Local Revenues. which are forecast. other than "l',lew T.a;: Revenue" to increase by only $88,715 or 1%. In his memorandum dated April 8, 1988. Mr. Brown indicated that the Commissioner of Revenue anticipated that the 1988 General Reassessment would increase by 7 to 10 percent and that Finance Director Dick Fitts estimated that, at current ta:{ rates, ·this reassessment would result in an increase in revenue from this source of $198,888 in FY89/90 over FY88/89. 'We also noted that the Petsone. 1 Propert~ Tax revenue for FY88/89 was recently reported to be around $122,000 more than the amount included in the Budget. We question whether this factor was considered in the Local Revenue Forecast. We suspect that other additional Local Revenue incree~ses may also have been overlooked. We raise these points because we are concerned that, in preparing the Five Year Borecast, the City Administration may not have been-totall~ diligent in lettering out every reasonably anticipated increase in local revenues from existing revenue sources and, therefore, ma~ have painted a somewhat unrealistically pessimistic picture of revenues anticipated for FY89/90 from currently a':ailable BOUFC es. The ma~or difference in General Ft:nd Revenues between FY88/89 and FY89/90 appea~s, however, in the "Miscellaneous" category' which is down b~ $926,785 or ~7%. Mr. Brown has explained this decrease will result from the elimination of the $515,205 transfer from the Water Fund to the General Fund, the-elimination of the $251,512 transfer from the Sewer Fund to the General Fund,.'and the reduction of the'$1,652,270 transfer from the Electric Fund in FY88/89 to a $1,250,000 transfer in FY89/90, or a total reduction in transfers of $926,785. We believe that this reduction and these eliminations of t~ansfers give rise to the first philosophical question Council must address: What is the reason for the existence of the "Enterprise Funds"? The Enterprise Funds The Enterprise Funds provide to our citizens essential services - electricitV, water and sewer - which could be provided by private enterprise or an independent authority, such as the P.S.A., but which the City has chosen to provide. The rationale for the City to provide these services could be that the City desired to provide these services at the lowest cost to its citizens and that it, therefore. chose to provide these services rather than rely on private enterprise with its profit motive or on another layer of government L~.~,,~_,a~,,. Or the rationale could be