It’s now budget time. Each year the city starts its budget around June or July and works towards a budget to address next years needs. The process starts with staff looking at their department needs and expenses and making decisions about where we need to go with it. These are then brought together to see what the bottom line looks like. Along the way we address questions like what are our equipment needs, what capital projects might we consider for this next year, and where are our costs going with payroll and other related expenses.
Once the staff has assembled a draft council gets involved with a review of the numbers and they too make decisions concerning the thresholds established in departments and line accounts. They also look towards capital projects or initiatives that they would like to see accomplished in the upcoming year.
Another important factor in developing the budget is understanding the impact. In other words what is the rate of taxation we anticipate based on last years amount. Given our cycles of valuations for properties we don’t see what our final tax capacity is until late in the year, typically December. So understanding impact is difficult in that we use last year’s data as a base. Typically cites see construction throughout the year and anticipate some growth in values. This year we have changes in values due to market conditions and also a loss of value due to detachment.
The process of the budget continues with a preliminary levy certified to the county no later than September 15th. This amount is the amount that goes on Truth in Taxation notices and it is also the maximum amount the city can tax for the upcoming year. The city continues to work the budget to hopefully additionally decrease the amount of the levy. The Truth in Taxation meeting and final levy occur in December.
