The Kyle Report

The Kyle Report

Saturday, July 23, 2016

City manager’s proposed budget seeks stormwater fee, increase in garbage collection rates

City Manager Scott Sellers’s proposed budget for FY 2016-17 calls for the creation of a much-needed storm water management department, which Sellers is calling the Drainage Utility Fund, as well as a fee to pay for it.

Under Sellers’s proposal, approximately two thirds (actually 63.5 percent) of the total stormwater fees collected will be paid for by commercial customers and the remaining 36.5 percent will come from residential ones. Homeowners would pay a flat $3 per month fee with commercial customers being charged a minimum of $3 a month or $.00126 per square foot of impervious cover ("rooftops, driveways, parking lots, walkways and patios").

Under Sellers’s plan, the department will essentially be an enterprise fund with a projected income of $1,084,474 in stormwater fees and total expenses of $1,080,508.

He is also seeking an 81-cent monthly increase in the garbage collection fee for the months of October through March of the upcoming fiscal year and then an additional 4-cent increase for April through September to help pay for the projected 7.74 percent ($184,400) increase in the city’s solid waste services contract with TDS.

As I mentioned last night, the budget, Sellers maintains, can be balanced with a 1 cent reduction in the city’s property tax rate.

Here are some other casual observations of Sellers’s proposed budget for the fiscal year which begins Oct. 1:

Sales tax projections are far more conservative this time around than they were in Sellers’s proposed budget for the current fiscal year, a 10.37 percent increase for FY 2016-17 vs. the robust 18.55 percent forecast for this year and which the city will not meet.

The budget forecasts city leaders will have 7.25 percent more money to spend on general operating expenses for the city (the budget’s General Fund) than it did last year.

The biggest increase in income, percentage wise, will come as a result of the opening of at least two new hotels in Kyle during the year. The budget is forecasting a whopping 178.99 percent increase in the amount of Hotel Occupancy Taxes it expects to collect. These HOT funds cannot, however, be used for the same kind of expenditures as the General Fund.

Sellers’s budget calls for a leaner administration, proposing an 11.52 percent reduction in expenditures for the Office of City Manager (the biggest reductions coming in cuts for merit increases; subscriptions and books; election services [possibly because there will not be a council election during the upcoming fiscal year]; and a rather large 22.59 percent reduction in the amount paid for legal services) and a comparatively large 33.48 percent reduction for the Office of Chief of Staff (most of that coming from a $62,792 reduction in full time wages and a corresponding drop in FICA, pension and health insurance costs. In the budget, Sellers asks to eliminate the position of grants administrator within the of Chief of Staff’s office, but it is not clear whether that accounts for the total reduction.)

On the other hand, it appears Sellers hopes to add a position (a planner) in the office of community development, proposing a $48,034 increase regular full time wages there.

The Police Department’s budget is being slightly reduced, by a scant 1.54 percent, but any reduction to a municipal police department’s budget is newsworthy. The biggest reduction here, however, is the $225,000 that won’t be needed for motor vehicles although police officers are not going to be all that thrilled about a proposed $53,844 reduction in full time wages. To me, that’s not all that surprising since the department has had problems filling all the new FTEs created for them in this year’s budget, but it also means the cops aren’t going to be getting that pay increase they have been seeking.

The largest proposed increase, 72.87 percent, comes under the heading of Information Technology, possibly because the cost of providing internet service in the various departments is increasing.

Expenditures for books and subscriptions for the library remain flat next year over this year, although the budget calls for an $1,000 (20 percent) increase on the amount the library spends on movies and books on CDs. I’m somewhat surprised the library doesn’t have more vocal support from the community for increases in the amounts spent on library materials.

I find it somewhat puzzling that Sellers is seeking a 70.04 per cent reduction ($46,755) in street repairs and maintenance and what appears to be the complete elimination of expenses for the City-Wide Beautification Plan. It appears the reasoning in the latter is that the money for that program ($75,000) will come from HOT funds during the next fiscal year, not the General Fund and the theory behind the former is $785,000 in the Street Maintenance & Improvement Fund can be used for such projects as the construction on Kyle Crossing from Kohlers.

Sellers is proposing spending significantly more ($212,333) for motor vehicles and other heavy and light equipment for Street Maintenance. This is just one example why I prefer budgeting for outcomes because I would like the city manager to elucidate exactly what he hopes to accomplish with these proposals in the budget manual instead of just numbers on a spread sheet.

Sellers is proposing a 42.34 percent reduction (393,266) in personnel costs within the Public Works Department even though he is seeking three additional FTEs for that department — an assistant director (at a salary of $117,757), an inspector ($64,442) and a pump & motor electrician ($56,447). The way Sellers makes this work is that only 31.2 percent of the amount in new salaries comes from the General Fund. The rest comes from the Water and Wastewater funds.

In addition, nary a penny is proposed for heavy or light equipment for Public Works, although Sellers is seeking $17,500 for motor vehicles for that department, a new expense request. I harken back to my interview with council member Shane Arabie when he was running for re-election earlier this year, particularly when I asked him what he hoped to accomplish in the next budget. One of the things he told me then was "For this budget cycle, I’m looking to get equipment for Public Works."

Sellers will be asking, however, for $217,000 to be spent for heavy equipment for the water department, a new expense. I’m assuming a lot, if not all, of that is for equipment needed in connection with operating the wastewater treatment plant (especially since there’s an identical entry of $217,000 listed for heavy equipment under the heading of "wastewater operations.’) But, then, that’s another reason why I would like to see the city switch to a Budgeting for Outcomes system, which would not only make the city more accountable for these expenditures but also, at a minimum, clarify them. As this article articulates, budgeting for outcomes forces budget writers to approach its annual document from the positive, not the negative. "Instead of How can we cut projected spending to meet revenues?,’ ask What’s the best way to produce the most value with the dollars we have?’"

Arabie also told me during that interview I referred to earlier "There’s a massive deficit in personnel. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago for the utility billing. Little things like that." Doesn’t look like that "massive deficit" is going to get any better because Sellers is seeking a 40 percent reduction ($160,383) in personnel costs for utility billing. In fact, Sellers’s budget calls for an overall 43.95 percent reduction in spending ($299,108) for that department.

Of the Capital Improvement Project expenditures, the largest, of course, is the $2.4 million for wastewater with $1.75 million of that dedicated to the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, even though that is just a fraction of what is being proposed to be spent on that (a total of $15.1 million) in the next two years. The "total wastewater impact" on this year’s CIP budget, according to Sellers, is expected to be $10,483,900 when the costs for all the interceptors and other improvements are included.

The city manager is proposing fee increases for Parks and Recreation services, including the rental of Historic City Hall, community rooms and the gazebo at City Park Square. He’s also seeking the amount paid for those Kyle residents between the ages of 18 and 54 who want to use the city’s swimming pool to be raised from $3 to $3.50 and the season pass price increased from $78 to $91.Season passes for non-Kyle residents would go from $104 to $130 under Sellers’s proposal.

He has not called for a change in the fees charged for excessive false alarms or unwarranted stop signs, but it is interesting he highlighted those sections in bright yellow, I’m guessing as a signal to council members what any increases they proposed were fine with him. He is, however, proposing a $320 payment for anyone requesting a TUMTCD warrant request for a possibly unnecessary stop sign as well as a new $850 "Development Review Fee" that would be payable at the time of the request.

The public will have its first crack at giving its view on the budget next Saturday at the beginning of the scheduled 8 a.m. city council budget workshop to be held in the city hall's council chambers.

No comments:

Post a Comment