Fort Walton Beach Ordinance — 1233--Fiscal Year 93-94 Budget — reading text

BUDGET OVERVIEW The major emphasis of this and future budgets will be to enhance the quality of life within the community and to strive towards the goals outlined below. To the greatest extent the chief objective of the administration is to construct and design a budget that possible, will achieve these goals within current fiscal limitations. With the help and support of the Mayor and Council, and with new ideas and concepts geared towards improving the quality of life of our citizens, we can make considerable progress towards accomplishing our goals. The City Charter requires the City Manager to submit an annual budget to the City Council. Since the budget is a statement of City policy in fiscal terms, it should be submitted as a reflection of the Council' s service delivery priorities. We believe that the Fiscal Year 1993- 94 Recommended Budget does reflect prudent, responsive and sible priorities, I, _~__.__ __.___--\ 0'~ \ h'l, P> I~ I B ft ~ H y, yV 1" ~.~ 1'~, AM [. R I C A' 5 M 05 T B [. AUT I r U L B [. A C H [. S f  Some of the key principles on which the Budget has been developed include: Basic services are financed to respond to community needs. Revenues have been estimated at realistic levels. Employee benefits and salaries are maintained at competitive levels. Quality of life is enhanced by Capital improvements for the Parks, Water and Sewer systems. Infrastructure maintenance is funded to preserve the efficiency and effectiveness of street and drainage systems. if The five major Goals of the City administration are as follows: 1. Protect and Improve the quality of life. 2. Responsiveness to community and Council needs. 3. Implementation of programs to stabilize and improve City operations. 4. Improve employee working conditions and excellence in service delivery. 5. Development of balanced revenue sources. It is important to note that comparisons with the Current Year ( FY 1992- 93) Budaet are based on ADJUSTED Budaet fiaures. In prior years, staff budaeted for personal services salaries) expenses in both the service department and the user department. This had the effect of inflatina the budget. In the Proposed FY 1993- 94 Budaet, this practice has been eliminated, however, in order to provide meaningful comparisons in this Message and the Financial Detail printout, staff has backed out these double budaeted fiaures from the FY 1992- 93 Budaet shown in the printout. Therefore references to the FY 1992- 93 are to the Adjusted Budaet. In general, the City of Fort Walton Beach can consider itself to be in stable financial condition for the upcoming fiscal year. Within the current level of resources, staff will be capable of obtaining the most urgent needs and continuing to make progress in solving long- range problems. This assessment is not meant to portray a problem free picture. It is important for the City to come to terms with the imbalance between revenues and expenditures in the General Fund. We must find ways of streamlining operations and increasing revenues over a period of time. The recommended General Fund Budget includes, as it has for the past few years, monies from the Water and Sewer Funds in order to balance expenditures, as well as a modest appropriation from Fund Balance ( surplus). M ii  The total City Manager' s requested budget for all funds for Fiscal Year 1993- 94 is 22, 635,700 or 3.46% over the Fiscal Year 1992- 93 budget of $ 21, 879, 579. Last year the Council took a major step in stabilizing the Water and Sewer Funds though implementation of rateincreases effective October 1, 1992 and October 1, 1993. Currently, the fund balance ( surplus) in the General Fund has been stabilized at approximately $ 3, 190, 000; however, this has been accomplished with the transfer of approximately $ 1,400, 000 from the Water and Sewer Fund. The following table lists the recommended annual budget for all City funds. FUND FY 1992-93 FY 1993- 94 I (-) Change General $ 14, 716, 797 $ 14, 726,525 $ 9, 728 0. 07% Utility Tax Fund 1 , 801 ,008 2, 104, 141 303, 133 16. 83% Law Enforcement Trust Fund 139, 360 73, 106 ( 66, 254) ( 47. 54%) CDBG 234,000 236,000 2, 000 0. 85% Water 1 , 581 , 583 1, 727, 905 146,322 9. 25% Sewer 2, 764,823 3, 141, 815 376, 992 13. 64% CRA 642,008 644,805 2, 797 0.44% 2}, 879,579 .... $ 22.635,700 No increase in the Ad Valorem rate of the current year' s 5. 62 mills is proposed for next Fiscal Year. The Budget for Fiscal Year 1993- 94 does not propose new or increased user fees or charges for services, however, during the course of the upcoming year, staff intends to bring to the Council tM proposals to adjust certain fees such as occupational license fees which the Legislature authorized during its most recent session. Further, we intend to propose that fees be established for fire inspections which are required by the Fire Safety Code, and hazardous materials storage fees to reimburse expenses of Fire Department personnel tracking such materials for fire prevention and fire suppression purposes. Staff is proposing to utilize a modest amount of General Fund Unreserved Fund Balance ( surplus). The Water and Sewer Funds are in much better condition resulting from the long needed rate increases approved by the Council last September. The General Fund is dependent on Ad Valorem Taxes for approximately 19% of its revenues and growth in assessed taxable property values remains relatively flat. The sluggish local and national economies continue to impact State Shared revenues negatively. The Property Appraiser estimates Fort Walton Beach' s property value only increased from 481, 590, 822 to $ 493, 201, 171 or approximately 2.4%. We anticipate net additional revenues of 144, 500 at the proposed ad valorem millage rate. iii  We do not anticipate a significant upward trend in property values over the next few years due to several inhibiting factors. Although the City has virtually no control over the minimal increase in assessed taxable property value over the short term, staff and the Council have initiated a series of actions designed to stimulate redevelopment of the City which, over the long term, will have a significant positive impact on taxable value. The Council is well aware of the various improvements to the downtown area. In addition, with the coming Fiscal Year we will continue to formulate and refine a program to reinvest in other areas of the Community. Over the next several years, staff will bring to the Council programs to beautify and rehabilitate parks, street medians, tree plantings, storm drainage system, sewer and water lines, and street paving. Further, staff will review cultural and recreation programming with the goal of enhancing same and making it more responsive to the changing needs of our youth, families and Seniors. Staff has included funds to initiate a comprehensive Visioning Program to develop a shared vision of the Fort Walton Beach area to help guide us into the 21 st Century and to bridge the rifts which have kept the community divided too long. With the Visioning Program efforts, the City will strive to stimulate redevelopment of selected areas of the City, and stabilize and upgrade deteriorating residential areas. The City, along with the private sector, will provide incentives to stimulate redevelopment of obsolete or underutilized commercial properties, renovation of aging dwellings by a new generation of families, enhance opportunities for our merchants and service businesses and expand employment opportunities for our residents and our children. The resulting reinvestment in our community will provide for renewed growth in assessed values. The Visioning Program will be the focus of a significant effort by staff, Council and the community in the coming years. Staff has spent considerable time prioritizing the City' s financial needs to alter the relationship of expenditures exceeding revenues. The total budget increase of $ 756, 121 or 3.46% is attributed to the following major items: 1. 405, 885 is budgeted for a proposed 4% wage adjustment for employees not eligible to join the Fire union. 2. Approximately $ 300,000 is budgeted for a 27th pay period which occurs in FY 1993- 94. This additional pay period recurs every eleven years. Although employees receive one additional pay check during the Fiscal Year, over the Calendar year the wages remain the same. 3. 155, 892 is budgeted for the T ASC Grant with the Bridgeway Center. Because the City serves as the Contracting agency and the Bridgeway Center serves as the Contractor, the City must budget the funds which are reimbursed from the County and State. This is essentially a pass through grant, however it must be shown as a budgeted revenue and expense. 4. 435,000, is budgeted for the purchase of a new computer hardware system and integrated software. The City' s Data General Computer, purchased in 1985, is obsolete O!!( I' and the software inadequate for today' s needs. Funding for the computer has been split between the General, Water and Sewer Funds. 5. 30,000, is budgeted to replace the roof of Fire Station 2 which has not been replaced since its construction 19 years ago. 6. 200,000, has