Starkville aldermen concluded a months-long budgetary process Tuesday by passing the city’s financial operating parameters in a 4-3 vote Tuesday.
Since March, most city department heads promised the three-person Starkville Audit and Budget Committee, comprised of Aldermen Scott Maynard, Lisa Wynn and Roy A. Perkins, they would produce budgets relatively level from their current Fiscal Year 2013-2014 levels.
The Dispatch used a Sept. 11 budget worksheet to compare individual departments’ line items after the board approved the document without any changes Tuesday.
Many departments are relatively flat, but human resources, building department-code enforcement and offices of the city planner and mayor all saw their individual funding streams increase at least $48,000 from the current year’s budgeted amounts.
Also, the city’s primary debt service fund increased $196,345 for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. Starkville is forecasted to make roughly $1.41 million in principal and interest payments for various projects, including an estimated $541,525 for construction of its new administrative building.
Potential payments for Cadence Bank, which could cost the city an estimated $1.55 million to acquire the structure for Starkville Police Department purposes, are not yet budgeted as a deal is not solidified.
Starkville is forecasted to collect about $4 million in ad valorem revenues alone in the upcoming fiscal year, a figure staff told aldermen this week was budgeted at 90.7 percent of the actual expected amount. Adding intergovernmental revenues, including licenses, forfeits, services and other miscellaneous line items, total predicted revenues increase to $18.19 million. Intergovernmental revenues also include numerous grants for fire and police services, a $200,000 brownfield grant and portions of the 7 percent sales tax and 2 percent food and beverage tax.
Comparatively, the city budgeted revenues at $17.29 million, $18.83 million and $18.43 million for FYs 2011-2012, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, respectively, while reporting its total activity for those years at $16.13 million and $17.34 million for the first two time periods. The proposed budget The Dispatch received from the city was prepared Sept. 11. As of that date, the town received $15.14 million in general revenues for the current fiscal year.
Starkville Police Department will receive the highest budget increase as the FY 2014-2015 budget shows an additional $128,522 for line items including personnel services, supplies, contractual services and debt payments. Its total departmental budget, not including administration and outliers, such as individual line items for training and animal control, is budgeted at $3.98 million.
Its personnel services, which include salaries and contributions to insurance and retirement, increase from about $2.9 million to $3.3 million. Specifically, wage payments are budgeted to increase from $1.68 million to $1.85 million.
The police department’s supplies line item increases by about $9,000, but its gasoline and oil budget within supplies remains budgeted flat at $150,000. A line item for uniforms increases from $25,800 to $35,800 in the upcoming fiscal year after the current year-to-date total shows it went over at $35,936.90.
SPD’s administrative budget, which is specifically for the department head’s salary its associated city personnel contributions, decreases from $103,072 to $95,710 in FY 2014-2015. The document shows that the city is almost $12,500 over that line item for the current year as of Sept. 11.
The mayor’s office is the second-highest budgeted increase for FY 2014-2015, as it forecasted to receive an additional $98,807 in the upcoming financial year. Approximately $321,025 is set aside for the office, while $228,218 was budgeted this current fiscal year. The budget worksheet obtained by The Dispatch shows its total line item went over budget by about $12,000 this fiscal year.
About $152,000 is budgeted for Mayor Parker Wiseman’s and Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Adams’ salaries, but the department’s total personnel services combines to a budgeted $237,125, which is about $43,000 more than last year’s amount.
It is believed Adams salary transfer — he was city clerk in the last fiscal year — led to the spike in the mayor’s office’s salary figures and a significant decrease for the city clerk’s total budget cost.
Contractual services for Wiseman’s office will more than double next fiscal year, jumping from about $35,000 to $76,300. An additional $4,000 is provided for the mayor’s travel budget, while $11,000 was added for the CAO’s travel budget, a line item previously left blank. The department’s administrative assistant is also budgeted for $3,000 in travel, another line item that was nil before the upcoming fiscal year.
The FY 2014-2015 budget worksheet completed Sept. 11 show the mayor’s travel budget went over about $6,000 this fiscal year from its budgeted $7,000 line item. The year-to-date total showed $13,085.11 was spent.
Starkville’s human resources office has the third-highest increase in regular departmental funding as personnel administration is budgeted to receive about $65,000 more than it did in the current fiscal year. Its total line item increases from $117,467 to $184,725 primarily because of increased salary requirements after aldermen added an assistant personnel director to shadow and assist Randy Boyd.
Other significant departmental increases include:
The city planner’s office will receive $53,000 extra in funding next year. While personnel services for the department is forecasted to decrease, contractual services are budgeted at $100,050, almost $70,000 higher than the current fiscal year.
Building department and code enforcement line item increases from $218,911 to $266,919 — roughly $48,000 — for FY 2014-2015. Personnel services alone jumps from $191,407 to $239,365, and the budget worksheet shows that line item over budget at $202,833.83 for the current fiscal year.
Other major line items reporting minor increases include figures for Starkville Municipal Court (about $12,000), engineering (about $2,000), fire administration (about $2,000), the fire department’s overall operating budget (about $3,000), street department (about $2,000) and animal control (about $2,000).
While most departments remained level or experienced increases in their upcoming budgets, Starkville’s Information Technology department trimmed its budget by $100. The city clerk’s office, the board of aldermen and Starkville’s line item for other administrative costs had more considerable decreases at about $105,000, $10,000 and $30,000 respectively.
City Clerk Lesa Hardin’s office is budgeted for a significant decrease in personnel services, as it will drop from $421,164 to $313,500. The department’s overall line item for the current fiscal year is $543,214, and the budget worksheet’s year-to-date total shows it well under that figure at $397,000. Overall, the office is budgeted at $435,600 for the upcoming fiscal year.
Starkville’s capital projects fund also drops significantly in the upcoming financial year, decreasing about $217,000 from $862,654 to $658,000. The city reserves $100,000 for its municipal building fund, $20,000 for Americans with Disabilities Act sidewalk improvements, $300,000 for street projects, $50,000 each for Carver Drive ditch and Russell Street projects and $70,000 for storm drainage in that specific line item.
The city’s sanitation department predicts $2.71 million in revenues, of which are mostly fees, for the upcoming year. It’s total expected revenues fall $4,000 short of what was predicted for FY 2013-2014, but the year-to-date tally had that figure at $3.16 for FY 2013-2014.
As of Sept. 11, it had collected $2.8 million in fees for the current fiscal year.
Sanitation’s expenses are expected to increase about $40,000 to $1.96 million in the upcoming fiscal year, primarily due to an additional $40,000 that will be spent on higher quality garbage bag distributions.
Combined water and sewer revenues are budgeted for a decrease from $10.03 million to $9.77 million. Water sales alone are forecasted to drop from $3.2 million to $3.1 million, while sewer sales are expected to increase from $1.9 million to $2 million. Those only constitute a portion of the department’s combined revenues, however, which are also derived from tap fees, material sales, wastewater revenues and miscellaneous income.
Year-to-date figures show sewer sales exceeded its current fiscal year forecast by $130,000 as of Sept. 11, while water sales were only about $150,000 shy of hitting its predicted mark.
The water department’s general expenses are budgeted about $500,000 shy of FY 2014-2015’s $3.82 million level. It will add a $290,608 line item to help purchase automated metering systems, as previously approved by aldermen.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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