City budgets $1,337,370 for 2019

Linda Trest, Staff Writer
Posted 1/9/19

Mayor Cary Parker signed off on the 2019 city budget on Dec. 27, just days before the end-of-the-year deadline.  

The budget projects income of $1,337,370 for the city this year. This is an …

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City budgets $1,337,370 for 2019

Posted

Mayor Cary Parker signed off on the 2019 city budget on Dec. 27, just days before the end-of-the-year deadline. 

The budget projects income of $1,337,370 for the city this year. This is an increase of $38,425 over 2018. 

The approved budget includes a 10 percent pay raise for three of the city’s employees: City Clerk Jane Hungler, Public Works Director Nick Grube and Ron Parmentier, a laborer in Grube’s department. These three have the longest employment history with the city.

With the passage of Proposition P last August, the city will receive $45,000 in police funding that was not available in 2018. 

The city will also be able to draw out $51,000 in medical reserves. Since the city provides partially self-funded health insurance to its employees, a large cash reserve is required to be in place to cover catastrophic illnesses or injuries. That requirement has been met and some of the money can now be returned to the general fund. 

Those two line items add $96,000 to the city’s income this year. Yet, the total income on the produced city budget has only increased by $38,425.

This means other areas of income decreased from last year. 

The city is not expecting an annual lease payment of $4,600 from Bull Moose Tube, Co. 

It is also projecting $11,040 less in municipal fines this year. 

All other lines of general fund income remain unchanged since last year. This includes sales, personal property and real estate tax receipts. 

Two income items, public works maintenance and motor vehicle taxes, were taken off the general fund ledger and moved to the transportation account. This move will add $54,600 to that account.

Yet, the transportation fund is the only fund to show a decrease in income for 2109. It is projected at $224,600, down from $253,315 in 2018. 

Part of the decrease can be explained by changes in bookkeeping procedures. For example, a rollover reserve was counted as income in 2018. For the 2019 budget, Hungler says she was advised by the auditor to not show the rollover as income. 

Another rollover occurred in the water department and again, was not counted as income this year. The funds are available to use for expenditures in the budget though.

In addition to the general fund income, the water and sewer funds also show an increase in funding for the new year. Each of those funds has only one source of income, revenue generated by billing customers. These totals are $325,000 for sewer customers and $192,000 for water services.