8.0. SR 08-25-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1998 Budget Worksession August 25, 1997 Page 6 are limited dollars available in the $227,000 contingency fund for new employees and then for true council contingency type of expenditures. Capital Outlay - Capital outlay expenditures identified in the budget are usually in the $400,000 neighborhood. This includes expenditures for street/park trucks and equipment, police vehicles, building lease/purchase payments, sirens, payments of fire trucks, and miscellaneous equipment. The source of funds for these expenses are taxes and equipment reserves. Items identified in the general fund are financed by taxes as are items identified in the equipment certificate program. The city does not like using the equipment certificate approach as we end up paying interest on these "loans", but at this point in time we have very little choice. The equipment certificates are outside of the levy limits. Items identified in the equipment reserve budget are financed by the annual contribution from Municipal Utilities which does not go into the general fund. City equipment reserves are also used to help finance items listed on the equipment reserves budget. One of the approaches the city has used in the past to balance the budget is to cut capital outlay items or to purchase requested capital outlay items in the current year by way of using the city council contingency fund. We also move some requested capital outlay items out of the general fund and into the equipment certificate or equipment reserve budgets. Staff will seriously look at the shifting of these expenses prior to the presentation of the budget on August 25, 1997. New Pro~rams and New or Additional Services - If the city park and recreation bond referendum passes, the city can expect extra expenses in the park maintenance area. This is especially true if permanent bathrooms/shelters are constructed. Experience tells us that this is a heavy maintenance issue. Additionally, with the construction of new trails and the installation of additional park equipment, overall park maintenance expenses are expected to increase. There are no funds programmed in the 1998 budget for a city engineering department. This department has been under review and consideration for many years and I think we can expect this department to be established in the near future. The City Council will need to review the demand ibr this type of service versus the net expenses that the city would incur. The community recreation organization is currently going through a small evolution. This organization has lost some members, but may actually be getting stronger in the services that they are providing to the core group. Elk