For the past month, members of the Jefferson City Council have discussed, debated and changed the draft 2016 budget presented by Mayor Carrie Tergin at the end of July.
Last week, the Budget Committee concluded its work, moving forward a balanced $30 million general revenue budget, which will be considered by the full City Council at its Sept. 8 meeting.
While council members can still make changes to the draft (at least until the City Council gives it the final vote of approval), as it stands they have already made substantial changes to the draft budget presented by Tergin.
Revenue changes
The council made several changes on the revenue side, ultimately increasing the 2016 general revenue projections by more than $237,000.
Council members reduced the projections for property tax revenue by $22,000 to match 2015 property tax revenues. They also reduced the contributions and donations line item (which is the amount paid to the city by Allied Waste for damage to city streets from trash collectors) by $55,000, as the city is in the process of soliciting bids for a new trash contractor and it's unclear what amount would be in the new contract for street repairs.
The council also reduced the nearly $55,000 carryover surplus to be taken from the city's fund balance to zero. The amount had been put in the mayor's draft budget to offset an unexpected transit fare increase that had been built into the budget. That increase is no longer included in the budget, as the council removed the increased fare revenue and subsidy to the transit fund.
The council also increased the 2016 sales tax projections, which had been calculated using a three-year average, by $81,920. The figures now match the city's two-year average for sales tax revenues.
The draft budget currently includes a proposed gross receipts utility tax, or GRUT, increase to 6 percent, which is estimated to raise $294,241 in new revenue and would be used to address the city's vehicle replacement and maintenance needs.
The city's gross receipts utility tax is capped at 7 percent; to increase the rate any higher would require a public vote. The telephone tax has remained at 7 percent for years, but the gas and electric taxes were lowered to 6.55 percent in 1982 and to 5.65 percent in 1984.
Expense changes
Roughly $8,000 was removed from the city administrator's personnel budget, at the request of City Administrator Steve Crowell. As the mayor's draft had originally included a 2 percent across-the-board pay increase for city employees, it included a raise for Crowell, who decided he should not receive one and requested it be removed by the council.
The council also shifted funding for improvements at the old Missouri State Penitentiary, which had been included in the mayor's draft budget at $15,000 from general revenue. The council voted to instead take the funds from current capital improvement sales tax funds. The money would be matched by the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau and used to provide new or additional lighting in Housing Unit 1, 3 and 4. The project would require approval from the state.
The council also voted to remove one full-time and two part-time positions included in Mayor Carrie Tergin's draft budget, though the full-time fire training officer was later reinstated at a cost of $78,205. The fire training officer position, which was eliminated in a round of budget cuts in 2013, is responsible for coordinating training, keeping records, tracking professional standards and maintaining personnel certification, coordinating fleet management, operating as health and safety officer, and overall operational administrative duties.
The two part-time positions had been proposed in the Human Resources Department at a cost of $28,660, but reinstating those positions failed to pass a vote of the council last week.
Along with reinstating the fire training officer, the council voted to remove a 4 percent bonus that had been given to fire personnel who had been performing the duties of a fire training officer in addition to their daily responsibilities. That reduction removed $10,590 from city expenses.
The council also removed all leasing of vehicles as proposed in the mayor's draft budget. Tergin had originally included purchasing two new unmarked police vehicle at a cost of $53,842 and leasing six new standard police vehicles at a cost of roughly $27,964 each. Instead, the council removed the lease payment funds for 2016 ($44,728) and added $209,787 to purchase a total of eight police vehicles, including the two already in Tergin's draft budget.
Another $290,418 was added to replace and maintain vehicles, and will be spent at the discretion of the city administrator.
The council also removed $37,141 from Tergin's draft budget meant to pay for fire station repairs and instead allocated $150,000 for citywide building and equipment repairs and maintenance. Of that $150,000, the council specified $95,000 should go to fire station repairs, which matches the amount originally requested by the department to help address roughly a growing issue of immediate facility needs.
The council also was able to reduce the city's health care costs by $167,034 thanks to bid estimates coming in lower than anticipated.
Tergin's draft had included a 2 percent across-the-board pay increase for all city employees, which was removed by the council, resulting in an expense reduction of $367,450.
Because both the salary increase and health care costs were reduced, there was also a $37,877 reduction in subsidies for the airport and transit funds, as well as a reduction in grant revenue for $15,184. (Some city positions are funded or partially funded by grant funds, including school resource officers. For those positions, the school district pays a portion of the salaries.)
After much debate about salary increases and bonuses, the council allocated $279,562 for a $900 one-time bonus for all city employees, except Crowell. Along with that increase came an increase to the airport and transit subsidies for $27,127 and an increase in grant revenue for $9,733.
The only other expense change the council made to the mayor's draft budget was to add $1,750 for advertising costs to promote planning events to the general public within the Metropolitan Planning Organization budget. However, the city received federal and local grants that would cover $1,487 of that cost.