Lori Bush

It happens every year about this time, our annual budgeting exercise. Time to discuss our next Fiscal Year (FY2015) budget that begins on July 1, 2014 and ends June 30, 2015.

Unlike the federal government, municipalities must balance our budget and go through a process by which we get public input and balance that with our current and upcoming needs, improvements, operating costs and capital expenditures. You can see what you all told us by reading the public input report.

 

I wrote a bit about the process last year, if you would like to read more. 

Priorities

This year, Town staff has utilized a new process called “Priority Based Budgeting.” This is a system that we used to ensure that our resources align with the priorities that Council sets for the Town. The process starts by defining the goals, then drills down into those goals, identifies the programs and services associated with accomplishing those goals, evaluating the programs, a peer review and finally allocating costs based on those priorities. Council and staff reviewed and finalized the goals at our Council Retreat in January.

Our Council priorities are:

• Attractive Well Planned and Livable Community
• Economic Vitality and Development
• Effective Transportation and Mobility
• Quality Cultural Recreational and Leisure Opportunities
• Reliable, Sustainable Infrastructure
• Safe Community

Overview of the Budget

Here is a quick overview of the items in the budget.

• – No tax increase, and NO additional debt
• – Limited revenue growth is projected in FY2015 due to the gains in taxable real estate (our main revenue source) being offset by losses in taxable public service property, personal property and vehicle. (More revenue growth is projected after FY2015)
• – Remember, we paid a one –time $6M debt reduction payment in 2014, so there IS room for service expansion for FY2015.  (Meaning, if we NEED to borrow money, we COULD do so.)
• – The General Fund Operating Budget is $137.3M – with is a 3.1% increase over FY2014
• – The Utility Fund operating budget is $65M, a 4.8% increase over last year.
• – The Capital Improvement budget at  $51.2M  (a 51% drop from last year)
• – Utility rates will increase by 3.7% – a result of rate smoothing to pay for the Western Wake Water Treatment plan – $2.21 more per month for residents using 4,500 gallons of water.
• – Construct over 5 miles of new water and sewer lines ($5.3 million)
• – Additional 25.5 staff position – still keeping Cary at one of the LOWEST ratios of staff per 1,000 residents (8.2) among largest cities and towns in NC
• – Improved public access to Town information is planned, through a website overhaul, public access to Geographical based data, and new workflow software that will allow council meeting videos to be indexed
• Read More…