The Monroe City Council is one step closer to adopting a 2015 budget. The budget, prepared by Mayor Geoffrey Thomas, passed its first reading unanimously on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
The city's finance director, Dianne Nelson, spent time going over the preliminary budget during the month of October so that council would have the opportunity to thoroughly review the document. Public hearings were held in November, giving Monroe citizens the chance to provide feedback.
The budget is a balanced budget, meaning that the city's revenues are roughly equal to its expenditures.
Both Mayor Thomas and Nelson said that the budget is lean, and achieving balance took some effort. One of the overarching goals of the budgeting process was to achieve balance without an increase in property taxes, which they managed to accomplish.
"The mayor directed that operating expenditures had to be less than revenues,GÇ¥ explained Nelson during her general fund presentation in October. She explained that, while the city is beginning to emerge from the recession and revenues are beginning to climb, they've still got a ways to go. "We're still at the position where our expenditures are increasing faster than our revenues.GÇ¥
The city's general fund, which covers all governmental operations other than street maintenance and utilities, was the main focus of the budget preparation process. The general fund is primarily supported by tax dollars, with 41 percent of the revenue coming in from sales tax.
The budget anticipates receiving about $3.9 million in sales tax in 2015, not including the voter-approved tax increase of 0.2 percent that will help support the city's street maintenance fund. The street funding goes into a separate fund that is not included in the general fund revenue. Road preservation project plans are already being developed for those funds, which will begin to arrive in March.
The $3.9 million was arrived at after comprehensive analysis involving 10 years of Monroe's financial history. Things like new business, inflation, historical trends, pre-recession spending and adjustments to reflect current economic conditions were all taken into consideration.
The number included conservative projections from Monroe's new Walmart store which opened on Wednesday, Dec. 3. Walmart is projecting sales at about $500,000 in 2015, but Monroe took a more cautious stance.
"We're saying $300,000 because there will be a shift of people who no longer will shop at Fred Meyer but will move to Walmart,GÇ¥ said Nelson. "Walmart just looks strictly at what they get, but we're looking at the city as a whole.GÇ¥
One of the areas taking a hit in 2015 will be personnel. While the city is not planning to explore layoffs, they will look at deferring hiring in certain positions, and will seek to reduce personnel via attrition whenever feasible. So once the deputy city clerk position becomes vacant at the end of December, they will not seek to re-fill that position.
"We're not going to replace that,GÇ¥ said Nelson. "We're just going to redistribute the work.GÇ¥
There is $15,000 budgeted for the city to hire a part-time employee to assist with that workload.
The 2015 general fund projections include a shortfall in the city's contingency fund, which is money that can be used for one-time only, non-operational expenditures or other unforeseen expenses subject to council discretion. Due to some unbudgeted expenditures that occurred in 2014, the fund has roughly half the amount that is required by city policy. Council adopted a resolution in 2012 which stipulates that the contingency fund should contain 8 percent of the city's general fund operating budget.
With the city's operating budget for 2015 estimated to be just over $10,700,000, the contingency fund should have roughly $856,583. In the 2015 budget, the ending fund balance is estimated at $416,917. While Thomas and Nelson looked for ways to replenish the fund, they were unable to do so without negatively affecting the day-to-day operations of the city.
"The policy says to pay it back without causing undue hardship on city operations, and we really tried hard,GÇ¥ said Nelson. "The mayor really rallied to pay some of that back and we just couldn't do it.GÇ¥
Despite its relative leanness, the budget holds promise as there is much on the horizon for 2015. Of all the general fund expenses, public safety is the most significant, representing 61 percent of the general fund expenditures. In 2014, the Monroe Police Department added two officers, retired K9 Joker and replaced him with K9 Nuke, and added two motorcycles to better focus on traffic enforcement.
They began to work collaboratively with Monroe business owners and the Monroe Chamber of Commerce in creating a retail theft group, worked with homeowners' associations to address neighborhood concerns and started a new senior volunteer program. The police department will continue these initiatives in 2015.
In January the new municipal court will begin operating at city hall, which was conceptualized as a way of saving the city money by no longer having to outsource court services. The goals of the new court include providing citizens with better and more expedient access to court services, and to make better use of alternative sentencing programs.
The parks and recreation department accounts for 10 percent of the general fund expenditures. Capital parks improvements for 2015 include resurfacing the athletic courts at Lake Tye Park and at Wales Street Park; skate park improvements at Lake Tye Park; infield surfacing at Sky River Park and Lake Tye Park; replacing playground safety surfacing and the master planning of the Cadman pit site. Additionally, the city will be co-investing in the development of a synthetic turf ball field at Monroe High School.
Throughout 2015, the city will work towards becoming more of a tourism destination by continuing to host and welcome events like Music in the Park; the Evergreen State Fair; the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour; the Lake Tye Triathlon and Speed Week at the Evergreen Speedway. Many other events will take place as well, including a new NSA girls' Western World Series fast pitch softball event coming in July of 2015.
To view a copy of the city's 2015 budget, please visit: http://www.monroewa.gov/.
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