Do you support or oppose the adoption of the revised 2017-2018 and proposed 2018-2019 budgets by the City Commission?

The City of Decatur’s Revised 2017-2018 and Proposed 2018-2019 budgets have been presented to the City Commission and are available to the public for review. The City’s budget is scheduled to be voted upon by the City Commission on June 18, 2018.

Do you support or oppose the adoption of this budget by the City Commission? Click on Post below to have your say.

Background

The City Commission is considering balanced budgets that invest in long-term planning, capital improvements and innovative technology while continuing to provide high quality services. The overall millage rate is recommended to increase from 13.49 mills to 13.62 mills or less than 1%.  The millage rate increase is for the debt service payments on the recently acquired Children’s Home property. Highlights of the proposed budget include:

• Maintain existing service delivery levels
• Continued focus on supporting and maintaining quality of life services
• Implementation of strategic plan priorities
• Funding of a 5-year sidewalk maintenance and construction program
• 2.5% in-step merit-based salary increase for full-time employees
• IT enhancements including upgrades to the City’s fiber network, additional automated parking pay stations, website replacement, e-permitting software and other smart city projects
• Pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements
• Public Safety Vehicles
• Debt service payment for the Children’s Home property purchase and improvements

The proposed 2018-2019 budget reflects the City’s “vision-based” budgeting process which is guided by the 2010 Strategic Plan and the results of citizen and employee surveys that provide an understanding of the community’s priorities. Five interdepartmental vision-based budgeting teams convened around the four 2010 Strategic Plan principles and one team focused on support of exceptional public service based on innovation, professional expertise and creativity. In addition to descriptive narratives around each strategic plan principle, the budget quantifies how each principle is supported financially.

The proposed 2018-2019 General Fund budget totals $26,751,270. This is $1,554,680 higher than the adopted 2017-2018 budget of $25,196,590. The proposed 2018-2019 budget estimates using $1,481,030 of fund balance on non-recurring expenditures and a one-time transfer to the Public Facilities Authority of $1 million for debt service. This would result in a remaining fund balance of approximately $7,331,162 at June 30, 2019 or approximately 27% of the operating budget. The City’s financial policies recommend maintaining a fund balance between 20-30% of the operating budget.

Overall, the budget combines conservative revenue estimates, prudent expenditure requests, responsible use of fund balance and a commitment to the City’s strategic plan and long-term vision. 

For more detailed information about the proposed budget and City priorities, you can visit the City’s budget resources page.

A summary of the budget and descriptions of projects and programs can be found in these three documents:

City Manager’s Budget Message 
Budget Narrative 
Summary of Fund Budgets 

Do you support or oppose the adoption of this budget by the City Commission? Click on Post below to have your say.