12-16-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Keis and Members of City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator Sharon Provos, Finance Director DATE: December 11, 2015 RE: 2016 Budget Adoption Attached is proposed budget for 2016 that includes a $30,000 reduction in Parks & Recreation administrative costs. The exact implementation of that cut is still unknown pending the outcome of a Little Canada Recreation Association meeting on Sunday, December 13th and a subsequent meeting with our Parks & Recreation administrative staff Monday morning. Staff will have a specific implementation strategy ready for Wednesday night’s meeting. With the reduction noted above, the gross levy had dropped to 2.37% and the net levy stands at 2.79%. The truth-in-taxation notices that were sent out by Ramsey County had our tax impact based on a 4% gross levy increase. We also made some changes to the General Capital Improvement Fund to ensure a positive fund balance is projected for the future. While the balance is very small in the later years, continued receipt of Local Government Aid will dramatically enhance the balance given we have only budgeted for the receipt of those dollars in the current budget year. The changes are as follows: • We eliminated the $20,000 for the drinking fountain in Pioneer Park (tennis court location) due to the high cost and the fact a fountain does exist by the main Park Structure. We will continue to look for lower cost alternatives regarding this issue. • We added $80,000 in revenue associated the sale of our current sweeper when a new is proposed for 2019. That amount may be a little strong. • We eliminated the proposed new lower shelter for Spooner Park at a cost of $395,000. This item will be presented to the Parks & Recreation Commission for consideration in the preparation of future capital budgets. It should also be noted that revisions to the Water Fund (601) and the Sewer Fund (602) will be made after 4th quarter billings are completed in January. As stated before, we are looking at modifying the rate structure in the sewer fund to minimize the impact of rate increases to low volume users.