09-08-2003 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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oJ. r*j General Fund Budget Expenditures The General Fund includes major City services such as police, fire, street maintenance, building inspection, planning and zoning, and finance and administration. The proposed 2004 General Fund budget expenditures are $4,701,490. This is a reduction of $ 11,390, or .2% from the 2003 budget. Although the General Fund budget expenditures are reduced overall, there are a number of areas that require increased expenditures. These include annual compensation adjustments, start-up costs for the Navarre Fire Station, acquisition costs related to an upgraded automated police records system, and costs related to the 2004 election. These increased expenditures are more than offset by a large number of expenditure reductions in the range of $500 to $2,000, as well as a number of more substantial expenditure reductions. These include contracted street overlays, training and development, and the contingency account. General Fund Revenues 1.The 2004 budget reflects the second year of a very restrictive levy limit along with substantial reductions in a number of significant revenue sources, the largest of which is a $30,000 reduction in interest revenue Use of Reserv es The proposed 2004 budget includes the use of reserves in the General fuiiu and the PIR Fund as sources of funding. In the General Fund reserves are proposed to be used to fund the biannual increase in the election expenditures and to replace the recycling grant which has been eliminated by Hennepin County. Because Elections expenditures are increased and decreased every other year, it is recommended that the increase in Elections e.xpcnditures of $11,200 for 2004 be funded using General Fund reserves. The City collects a recycling fee to pay the cost of the curbside recycling program. Since the inception of the curbside recycling program, the cost of the program has been somewhat offset by a recycling grant provided by Hennepin County. In recent years, the grant has been reduced, and will be eliminated in 2004. Because the City has generated a reserve balance in its recycling fee account, rather than increasing the recycling fee to offset the loss of the recycling grant, it is recommended that the lost grant revenue be offset by the use of reserves in the amount of $5,500. In recent years the City has levied $35,000 per year into the Permanent Improvement Revolving (PIR) Fund to provide additional funding for street overlay's, beyond the $97,000 amount included in the General Fund budget. There is expected to be a balance of $65,000 available in the PIR Fund as of December 31 ,2003. In addition, the 2004 levy includes another $35,000 levy into the PIR Fund. It is recommended that up to $67,000 of PIR Fund reserves be used in the 2004 budget to offset the $67,000 reduction in the funding for street overlays in the General Fund. —----------------*— vTiA'llLAaika