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REGULAR MEETING September 28, 2015
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<br />department that were one (1) to three (3) hours long. We had a number of public Personnel and
<br />Finance Committee meetings and three (3) off-site meetings.
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<br />We complied with out September 1 requirement to submit a draft budget to the County. We’ve
<br />advertised our budget in the Gateway state system which is a legal requirement. Today is our
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<br />public hearing on the budget, we are hoping for a budget adoption on October 12 with a backup
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<br />date of October 26. November 6 is our deadline. Five (5) or Six (6) of our budgets through the
<br />General Fund are approved through the state. They can change our budget but they haven’t done
<br />that in ten (10) years. Revenue and expenditure summary, our total proposed budget for 2016 is
<br />$304,956,659 it is a large budget. The General fund’s balance is at $53,852,368. That is an
<br />important fund to balance every year and we have. As Mayor Pete mentioned, we’ve been
<br />operating under that the property tax circuit breaker since 2009, you have seen the downward
<br />slope which has been difficult to work with.
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<br />We are hoping for relatively modest increases in the next two (2) to three (3) years. There is also
<br />an issue with property taxes in 2020 that we will have to deal with. A good question came up in
<br />the public meeting, “Who pays property tax?” Residential forty-three percent (43%) Commercial
<br />twenty-eight percent (28%) personal property tax fifteen percent (15%). Who receives property
<br />taxes? Cities and towns receive twenty-eight percent (28%); St. Joseph County School Districts
<br />receive twenty-six percent (26%); TIF districts receive twenty percent (20%); the County
<br />receives fifteen percent (15%). Local income taxes our COIT, LOIT, Public Safety LOIT, from
<br />2015-2016 it has been choppy based on state distribution the trend has been slightly up. We are
<br />using these funds for operating more than we ever used to. As the general fund restricts we are
<br />using more of these funds. Here is revenue across all lines: $274,871,262 property taxes,
<br />twenty-six percent (26%); Charges for services at thirty-six percent (36%) waste water, water,
<br />park charges fees, enterprise fund related, local income tax, nine percent (9%), other taxes are
<br />five percent (5%) (gas tax, wheel taxes, hotel, motel, cigarette, etc.,). Expenditures by activity
<br />general administration is six percent (6%), Economic Development is eighteen percent (18%),
<br />Utilities is twenty-eight percent (28%), Public Safety is twenty-five percent (25%). We wanted
<br />to bench mark, it is always good to know where your peers are at and this is based on the CAFR
<br />(comprehensive annual financial report). General government expenses were fairly low
<br />compared to Green Bay, WI at $75 per capita, the lowest is South Bend. That is considered an
<br />overhead cost, you want to keep that generally low. Expenditures by fund type, Enterprise Funds
<br />are the largest (water, waste water, etc.). Salaries and wages $79,915,000, that number is slightly
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<br />less than 2014 by ($465,000), biggest factor being the 27 payroll of 2014. Fringe Benefits
<br />increases cost at $29,000,000 or ten percent (10%). A summary from one year to the next, the
<br />middle is the highest because we encumber from projects that are in progress. They roll over to
<br />the subsequent year’s budget and those can be anywhere from $25-30 million dollars.
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<br />You can’t finish every project by December 31. That’s why amended budget 2015 is so much
<br />higher than the others. 1,100 budgeted full-time positions, four (4) more than 2015, five (5) new
<br />pickers in the public works area. A net of four (4) positions. Head count by type police and fire
<br />are each about a quarter of the total. We are proud of the Distinguished Budget Presentation by
<br />the City Award, being one (1) of only two (2) cities in the state of Indiana to receive such an
<br />award. We have an excellent AA bond rating. The state of Indiana has a AAA; we have the same
<br />bond rating as the city of Indianapolis. This is unemployment from 2011 from twelve percent
<br />(12%) down to about six percent (6%) based on national trends but also the hard work of our
<br />Community Investment Department.
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<br />Private investment is significantly up through July 2015, already surpassing the other years
<br />2012-2014. The overall city budget is $305,000,000, General Fund budget of $53,000,000
<br />(balanced). We ask for favorable consideration of our 2016 budget. There are a number of
<br />appendage items, we emailed them to you, and we want to make sure you are aware of that. We
<br />have a budget recap, a summary of the data by type and activity, we also have the budgets for
<br />each fund, we also have a trend from 2008-2016 on revenue and expenditures. There’s a lot of
<br />really detailed stuff I kind of like that so maybe you’ll like that as well. With that I’d like to
<br />open it up for questions.
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<br />Committee of the Whole Chairperson White- I’d like to start down the roll.
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