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c <br />TO: <br />FROM; <br />DATE: <br />Mayor Peterson and Council Members <br />Ron Moorse, City Administrator <br />July 30,2004 <br />SUB.IECT: 2005 Budget Preliminaty Overv iew <br />The proposed 2005 budget reflects an effort to address a number of deferred needs, as well as to fund a <br />number of special projects, while managing the impact of the tax levy on property owners. <br />Go.ils of the 2005 Biidp.ct <br />Tlie following is an outline of the goals of the 2005 budget <br />m <br />m <br />m <br />m <br />m <br />To improve ser\'ice delivery and customer ser\’ice <br />To increase the City ’s capacity to use information technology <br />To improve the maintenance of the City ’s infrastructure <br />To provide funding for identified priority projects <br />To begin to address long term public improvement needs <br />Onnortunity To Address Deferred Needs <br />for at least the past ten years, the focus of the budget development process has been to minimize tlie tax <br />levy. Over the past 10 years, the tax levy has been increasing at an average rate of 3.98% per year. <br />I his has been an important element in enabling the city ’s tax rate to remain one of the lowest in the <br />County. Over the past several years, a number of needs have been identified, and budget projections <br />demonstrating the City ’s ability to address those needs within reasonable property tax impacts have <br />been prepared. 1 lowcvcr, conservative caution regarding potential State budget problems, and then the <br />octual impacts of the State budget problems, including levy limits, have caused the needs to be deferred. <br />1 he 2005 budget is the ftrst opportunity the City has had to address the deferred needs, in order to have <br />a substantial impact i»ii the level and quality of services provided in Uie areas of Police. Fire. Streets, <br />Parks, Stormwater Managetnent. Sewer, and Water, as well as substantially strengthening the City ’s <br />ability to use and manage technology to improve productivity and customer service. The proposed <br />2005 budget includes a stibstantial increase in the tax levy to enable a number of these high priority, <br />deferred needs to be met. <br />Although it would be possible to further defer a fK>rtion of the needs to a future year, the budget <br />includes the proposed level of funding for a number of reasons. First, these needs are not going aw ay. <br />Tliey will need to be funded at some point. <br />Second, the proposed budget docs not fully address all of the deferred needs. Additional long term <br />fimtling of necessary public improvements, such as mrijor street rehabilitation, stormwater drainage