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08-15-16 Personnel and Finance
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08-15-16 Personnel and Finance
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City Council - City Clerk
City Council - Document Type
Committee Mtg Minutes
City Counci - Date
8/15/2016
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of these problems in the first place. We are also making sure through initiatives such as 311 that <br />we are doing well when it comes to responsiveness and communication. <br />The fiscal issue is that there is a certain drop -off on property tax revenues corresponding with a <br />changing (inaudible) but also a recession. It is starting to pick up, and you would expect <br />assessments to start floating up and see some revenue growth, but in 2020 if these estimates hold <br />up, we'll see less dollars coming in than today, and that is not adjusting for inflation. So we're in <br />a $3 million pickle if you're looking at the General Fund and Parks, if you add in TIF that is <br />another $3.8 million. Overall, that's about $7 million, with healthcare costs escalating and in <br />general, our costs grow faster than inflation, if we just did everything business as usual, we could <br />be looking at a hole of $10 million. If we act now, in the first two (2) years of these four (4) <br />years leading to 2020, I'm confident we can do it without savage cuts. <br />The other side of the coin is income tax revenues, because we don't have to wait on assessments, <br />and because it doesn't have the same kind of property tax cap, income tax revenues have been <br />pretty healthy. In the last few years, we had eight percent (8 %) growth in 2014, and three <br />percent (3 %) growth in 2015. We don't know yet what the 2017 numbers are like, and we <br />estimated conservatively because our 311 Center will need a chunk of this. As long as the <br />economy is growing, we should see this number continue to rise. As a City, we depend much <br />less on income taxes than we do on property taxes. St. Joseph County income taxes are actually <br />lower than many surrounding counties. Elkhart County, for example, is a quarter of a percent <br />higher. We are at one point seven five percent (1.75 %) in St. Joseph County, and that gives us <br />$25 million roughly divided among the economic development and public safety portions. <br />Our General Fund Plus, the General Fund, Public Safety, LOIT, COIT and EDIT, you'll see that <br />the vast majority is going to public safety. The next biggest chunk is going to economic <br />development, and then Innovation and Technology, which includes 311. Mayor Buttigieg went <br />on to point out the breakdown of the budget, which can be found on his presentation on file in <br />the City Clerk's Office. <br />When you look at where we're headed with the General Fund, Public Safety accounts for eighty - <br />five percent (85 %) of what we are proposing, Administration is twelve percent (12 %) and <br />Economic Development is three percent (3 %). Most of the other economic development is <br />coming out of funds like TIF. <br />Overall, we are seeing fewer City personnel, we are running leaner than we were at the <br />beginning of the decade. The Zoo and the 911 Center account for the drop -off. There are still <br />people doing that work, but they are no longer City employees. Some people are showing up on <br />Parks books that are accounted for by DTSB. They were City supported positions all along, but <br />now we are accounting for them as our own. <br />The other thing that is happening here is six (6) EMS and Fire positions are available because of <br />their success and the more diverse pool of recruits than we've had in the past. The idea here isn't <br />really a permanent net increase in Fire staffing, but it makes sense financially because we have <br />retirements coming up. We'll be seeing less overtime if we frontload some of these hires. <br />5 <br />
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