By Kalin Krohe, Panhandle Post
During the Aug. 17 Alliance City Council budget public hearing, council approved the 2021-2022 proposed budget on second reading.
The meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. The only people in attendance were council members and a member from the media.
The proposed budget contains anticipated and estimated revenues for the next fiscal year.
Below is the budget hearing narrative from Mayor Mike Dafney and council:
The submitted overall budget ordinance in front of council today totals $58.1 million, which is up almost $3.6 million from the prior budget.
The primary difference relates to the inclusion of $4 million in storm damage repair from July 2020 and July 2021 which should be reimbursed by insurance.
After remaining unchanged for three years, the city’s property tax request will be increased by $158,165 with the addition of a public safety tax to improve police and fire protection.
The city valuation is expected to increase less than 1% with final assessed values.
The property tax levy will increase from 0.321477 to approximately 0.351477 for the 2021 tax year and equates to an estimated $30 increase in the average home real estate taxes.
City sales taxes are projected to increase about 12.5% over last year’s budget to $2,250,000 based on recent receipts.
This year’s budget includes enterprise fee transfers to the general fund at a 12% rate of budgeted enterprise fee revenue. This source will provide approximately $2.193 million toward the general fund operations.
This includes planned transfers of:
· $1,744,500 from the electric fund
· $214,800 from the water fund
· $144,600 from the refuse fund,
· $58,600 from the sewer fund.
City employee salaries are budgeted with a 1.5% (2% for police) cost-of-living adjustment with the overall total of salaries and benefits budgeted increasing by $775,300 (2.36%) to almost $8.664 million. Authorized strength will be increased a net of 10 FTE from the prior year with authorized strength at 118.37 full- time employees and budgeted temporary and seasonal wages at $218,500. The majority of increased FTEs and related salaries will be contingent on pending grants and consolidation agreements.
The budget includes capital projects of $19.6 million in the submitted budget which is an increase of $690,000 (or 3.6%) over the capital project requests of last year.
Primary city-wide projects include:
· $4,950,000 for airport apron and taxiway overlay (contingent upon 100% grant funding)
· $4,000,000 for storm damage repair (covered primarily by insurance reimbursement)
· $1,400,000 for asphalt overlay projects (funded by bond issue)
· $1,000,000 for library HVAC upgrades (potential grants for a portion)
· $650,000 for balance of Third Street overlay (in participation with State of Nebraska)
· $440,000 for rejuvenation of the central parks tennis courts
· $350,000 for trail expansion (contingent on trails grant)
Enterprise capital projects include $4.3 million with the following major investments:
· $1,400,000 for electric urban and rural line rebuilds
· $500,000 for balance of public works expansion funded by the electric department
· $400,000 for continuance of remote read water meters
· $350,000 for balance of primary sewer lift station replacement
· $300,000 for refuse truck replacement
· $250,000 for landfill building replacement
· $180,000 for electric double bucket truck replacement
The budget includes the automatic 1% increase for all utilities, which was implemented by Council in 2012.