The preliminary budget is set for $21 million and ready for public reading

Projections estimate it will cost $21 million to keep the gears turning for the city of Powell in fiscal year 2015-16. Although that may seem high, it’s not much more than previous years and still leaves enough aside to contribute to the city’s reserves.

“It looks pretty darn good to me,” Powell Mayor Don Hillman said.

Water and sewer rates were the only part of the budget that was not preliminarily settled by the Powell City Council during last week’s budget session meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The council decided to look into possibly increasing rates by about $2.50 per month for a typical household rather than doing a large rate increase all at one time.

In the meantime, the preliminary budget was changed to include the rate increase, though it has not been officially decided or even approved — basically, everything is preliminary and far from set in stone at this point.

The budget will not be official until it passes three readings with the Powell City Council, and each time will allow for public comments.

“The public has plenty of time for input,” Powell City Administrator Zane Logan said.

The big picture

Going into the budgeting process, it was anticipated the city’s budget would balance, Logan said.

The proposed budget did not include any cost of living adjustments for the city’s employees.

Budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year is like a household budget, money will come in and go out between now and the end of the current fiscal year, so numbers are merely projected at this point. By June 30, the city is anticipated to have about $3.04 million available for budget reserves.

“The public believes that it is use it or lose it, but we don’t do that,” Logan said. “Whatever isn’t spent is available for revenue for the next year.”

The originally proposed budget would have left the city with an estimated $3.25 million at the end of the upcoming fiscal year, but that decreased slightly with some supplemental budget requests that were approved on Wednesday.

“Nevertheless, we are adding to general fund reserves,” Logan said.

Financially, the city is sitting on a much more stable foundation than it was in 2010, when it had just barely $1 million, Logan said. Within five to six years, they have managed to triple that amount.

“We need another $2-3 million yet to really have reserves,” Logan said. “But it is a lot better position than we were in a few years ago.”

Some expenses swapped categories in recent years, which caused variations within department budgets.

Information technology moved from enterprise and into the general fund, which brought that section back to normal, said Powell Information Technology Manager Zack Thorington. The police department’s technology expenses are higher than most departments’ because they have more phones and computers, he said.

“The auditor wasn’t comfortable with having that in the general fund,” Logan said.

How it will be funded

Overall, the city’s assessed valuation is an estimated $40.58 million. Levied and collected taxes in fiscal year 2015-16 will be $196,301 on the valuation of all taxable property.

The city levies eight mills, but three mills are levied by the local fire district so the net is five mills for the city, Logan said in an email to the Tribune.

Revenues are anticipated to increase from an estimated $7.59 million to $8.43 million. The biggest chunk of the increase in revenues is from sales tax from the state, which is anticipated to rebound from $1.8 million to $2.3 million — well above fiscal year 2012-13 sale tax totals of $2.06 million.

The city has an estimated $11.47 million in revenue anticipated for the coming fiscal year and $8.43 million for appropriations, for an estimated net balance of $3.25 million at the end of the upcoming fiscal year in June 2016.

Below is a breakdown of Powell’s proposed budget. 

Administration seeks more training

Administrative costs went up from $235,582 to a proposed $251,252 due to cost increases nearly across the board for almost everything from equipment to extra staff training.

“These budgets, none of them have any fat on them to say the least,” Logan said.

Each department estimated what they think they will need to spend in the upcoming fiscal year for everything from large equipment and construction on down to basic office supplies. This allows the city to estimate what the cash carryover will be for the next fiscal year, Logan said.

“Our estimates include what we anticipate spending through the rest of the year,” said Public Works Director Gary Butts while discussing the city engineer’s budget.

Streets Department needs a new dump truck

There was some shuffling between the city’s mechanics and the streets department which received consensus funds for slurry and chip sealing, Butts said. The other big expense is the department’s 1991 dump truck is in need of replacement since parts are difficult to obtain for repairs and it has over 8,000 hours on it.

“It is pretty bare bones,” Butts said.

Parks Department needs a new mower

The city parks department budget request was almost identical to last year with an additional $20,000 for the arboretum. The department is also in need of a mower.

“Costs to replace and repair equipment is going up,” parks superintendent Del Barton said.

The parks department’s budget is actually a little down from last year since some of the funding needed for the new equipment was taken out of other portions of the department’s budget, Logan said.

“It is really stripped down as much as we can and still operate,” Logan said.

Golf course

The irrigation tax assessment for $2,200 was the city’s unavoidable expense for the golf course within the proposed budget. The Powell Golf Course’s funding request was nearly half of what they requested last year. A year ago, the Powell Golf Club requested $65,000 and received $30,000; this year, it requested $35,000 and received the full amount during the supplemental budgeting session on Wednesday.

Police Department

The Powell Police Department has one of the largest budgets in the city, and the department’s request was up slightly from the current fiscal year’s projected total cost, going from $2.26 million to $2.3 million.

The department has more instructors on staff than in the past, so they are doing more in-house training, Police Chief Roy Eckerdt said.

The department is shuffling responsibilities among personnel, such as bringing the lieutenant into an administrative position, he said.

“It seems like a better use of the administrative function, and we can do that with little increase in the salary budget,” Eckerdt said.

The department is saving money by having officers retire and bringing in new ones at a lower pay-grade, he said.

Airport

“The public hears about how much the airport costs, but if you look at the revenue, it is getting more and more use,” Logan said.

The airport is starting to show an economic benefit to the community beyond medical use, Councilman John Wetzel said.

General Fund

The general fund increased by nearly $1 million for Gluten Free Oats, a loan through the Wyoming Business Council, which will be repaid back into the Powell economic development fund.

Garage shop

The city’s garage shop budget request was nearly double over the previous year’s, since it added personnel.

Powell Aquatic Center

The aquatic facility’s proposed budget was about $30,000 over last year’s cost. “People are using it like mad,” Butts said.

Safety and supply costs went up this year, and the facility is looking to redesign the frog pond and update the lift for the pool to help disabled clients into and out of the pool for ADA compliance, said aquatic facilities supervisor Angela Frank. Staff also plan to purchase the last two lily pads and some draining equipment. 

Electric fund

The electric fund is the one department that has increased fees for the upcoming fiscal year, billing in July will go up about 12 percent for the base charge, Logan said. The base fee is the ability for electricity to be available when needed, not the actual use of the electricity.

Warmer winter weather didn’t bode well for this department since customers didn’t run their heaters as much as in the past, and that meant less revenue.

Administration

Attorney

Treasurer

Inspection Services

City Engineer

Street Department

Parks Department

Golf Course

Police Department

Municipal Court

Information Technology

Building Expense

Airport

Other general expenses

City clerk

Garage shop

City council

Powell Aquatic Center

Water fund transmission and distribution

Water department supervision and accounting

Wastewater fund operation and maintenance

Sewer bond and interest

Sanitation fund operation and maintenance

Electric fund

Electric distribution

Electric maintenance and meter expense

Electric fund supervision and accounting

Powellink fiber fund

Capital projects

Powell Economic Development

$251,252

$108,216

$336,683

$104,996

$52,100

$1.25 million

$705,891

$2,200

$2.3 million

$56,497

$122,036

$120,099

$684,931

$1.1 million

$130,784

$219,433

$71,544

$593,096

$1.21 million

$563,160

$1.48 million

$46,630

$1.34 million

$6.77 million

$756,060

$40,000

$1.55 million

$294,550

$57,500

$120,000