Council members take closer look at proposed new budget numbers
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on May 27, 2015 1:46 PM
The Goldsboro City Council is expected to adopt a budget for fiscal year 2015-16 on Monday that includes a 1-cent tax increase and funding cuts to agencies across the board.
This decision comes on the heels of a budget work session held Tuesday afternoon at city hall that resulted in the council making no changes to the proposed budget, which includes the tax increase and cuts.
While the tax increase and agency funding were points of discussion among council members, no significant changes were made to the proposed plan.
Currently, the budget includes an increase from 65 to 66 cents per $100 of valuation of property. This is expected to bring the city an additional $212,000 in revenue, which will cushion the loss of $438,500 that will result from the elimination of privilege licenses and permits due to new state mandates.
The tax increase will cost the average homeowner an extra $10-12 per year, Finance Director Kaye Scott said.
"I don't think we have any choice but to leave that tax increase in there," Councilman Bill Broadaway said. "That's only giving us back half of what was taken away with the privilege tax."
Money from the tax increase will go toward street resurfacing and the expansion of Elmwood Cemetery.
"We're certainly not making ourselves whole if we go with a 1-cent tax increase," Broadaway said. "And since we cannot or did not go up in fees, I don't have any trouble justifying it."
After the back and forth about the tax increase, which was supported by every council member except Charles Williams, the next point of concern was which agencies and organizations to fund and how much funding to provide each.
Despite lengthy presentations by the directors of the Wayne County Museum and Literacy Connections at the budget public hearing on May 18, no additional funding was allotted. Literacy Connections is slated to receive $12,000. The organization requested an additional $8,000 at the public hearing. The museum is slated to receive $12,000, but requested an additional $10,000 at the public hearing.
WAGES, an organization that delivers meals to senior citizens several times per week, requested $20,000 from the city. No firm decision was made during Tuesday's budget work session about whether or not to fund the organization, but several council members made appeals in favor of funding WAGES.
"I don't see how we could not fund WAGES," Broadaway said. "I truly don't see how we could not fund at least part of them or at least as much as we can."
Last year was the first year the city provided funding to WAGES. The organization came to the city and said there was a waiting list for people needing meals, so the city gave the organization enough funding to add one route.
"I'm a volunteer with them, so I understand," Councilman Gene Aycock said. "The other side we have to look at again is, is this something they're going to come to us every year and rely on us to fund? I would like to think they can find the funding somewhere else at some point, so it does not become an ongoing thing."
Several council members stressed the necessity of the organizations and agencies finding additional funding from elsewhere, so the city does not enter a cyclical process of having to fund the agencies each and every year and add that stress to its budget.
"It doesn't mean just because they got it last year that they automatically get it this year," Mayor Al King said.
Council member Michael Headen also emphasized the importance of encouraging agencies to find funding elsewhere.
"This city does not carry the title of being the World Bank," Headen said.
"So we cannot do everything for everyone. I think we're going to have to be selective. I think Gene (Aycock) makes a very good argument -- if everybody comes to us with special concerns and we try to fund them, who's to say they won't come back the following year with that same sort of concern and expect maybe even more funding? And again, we don't have a wealth of money. We're on a shoestring budget like everyone else, and we have to learn how to live within those means," Headen said.
Overall, the city's budget for fiscal year 2015-16 will see an extra $659,687 added to it, adding $161,609 to the city's general fund and $652,165 to the city's utility fund.
An additional $7.2 million of debt is expected to be added to the city's debt service over the course of the next year as the city takes out a loan to finance a new W.A. Foster Recreation Center and to renovate the Goldsboro Country Club.
User fees will finance 42.8 percent of the 2015-16 budget, while property taxes fund 29.5 percent, sales tax funds 13.6 percent, state collected revenues provide 7.2 percent, grants fund 4.5 percent, capital returns fund 2.2 percent and the city's fund balance makes up 0.2 percent of the total budget amount.
Public utilities will receive 27.8 percent of the total budget, while general government departments will receive 15.5 percent, the police department will receive 15.8 percent, the fire department will receive 10.5 percent, the public works department will receive an even 13 percent, debt servicing will have 7.1 percent of the budget dedicated to it, parks and recreation will receive 5.6 percent, capital expenditures will receive 3.6 percent, travel and tourism will receive 1 percent and the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. will receive just 0.1 percent of the budget.
Also funded by the budget are 10 new positions for the city, including eight sanitation technicians, a planning technician and a golf teaching professional.
There were eight positions not funded by the city budget as it currently reads, including a help desk operator, computer systems administrator, a senior fleet mechanic, an assistant planning director, an additional police officer, a custodian manager, an athletic assistant and a special and senior populations assistant for the parks and recreation department.