Minutes 04/02/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 2, 2013 As for the Utility Fund, one penny on the water rate generates $76,000 in revenues, and one penny on the sewer rate generates $30,000 in revenue. This budget does not propose any increases in utility rates. Even though we lost a major utility fund customer, Smithfield Foods, we anticipate utility revenues to remain strong throughout Fiscal Year 2013-2014. Our cash situation is such in the Utility Fund that we are able to cash fund some capital projects that we had previously planned to debt finance. Again, we are able to balance the Utility Fund budget without increasing the water and sewer rates as originally forecasted. A Few Fee Changes The budget does include a limited number of proposed fee changes in the General Fund, as described below: • Increase the Ambulance fees to ensure that the City receives the maximum allowable Medicare reimbursement to cover the cost of providing Emergency Medical Services. These increases are as follows: o ALS-1 Emergency from $375.00 to $511.19 o ALS-2 Transport from $568.00 to $739.88 o BLS Emergency from $328.00 to $430.88 o Mileage from $7.00/mile to $8.79/mile • Increase the Police Concealed Weapon permit from $15 to $50. The current $15 fee goes to the State. This increase will provide local dollars to underwrite the Police Department's costs in processing the permits. • Adjust Museum fees to provide a discount for group tours and special events. • Increase the Parks & Recreation Six to Six Program monthly fees as follows: o Before School Care from $120.00 to $140.00 o After School Care from $170.00 to $190.00 Use of General Fund Balance We have some additional good news to report. This proposed budget reduces the City's dependence of using the General Fund Balance for reoccurring operating expenses. For the current fiscal year, the City used $2,419,041 to initially close the gap between General Fund operating revenues and expenditures. We worked hard to reduce this number in developing this budget proposal. This proposed budget uses $1,171,332 for this purpose. Future Operating Budgets While we have balanced this proposed budget without a need for increasing the real estate tax rate, we do have new expenditures that will come online in Fiscal Year 2014- 2015 and Fiscal Year 2015-2016. For example, we have the next phase of the debt service on the new courthouse and anticipated Virginia Retirement System cost increases. Unless this sluggish economy heats up in these future years, then we may have to increase taxes to maintain existing service levels. Budget Format As you will see, we have changed the format of this budget in order to provide more transparency and more detail. Each section of this budget includes more detail than previous years' proposed budgets. We have also added an appendix that gives aline- item detail for each of our funds.