Starkville Parks and Recreation Department’s official Fiscal Year 2014-2015 budget will nearly mirror its predecessor, Parks Director Herman Peters said Tuesday, but the document remains unreleased to the public and without formal approval from overseers as the autonomous organization enters into the first day of the new fiscal year.
Peters said Starkville Parks Commission, the organization’s seven-person board of directors responsible for all of the entity’s finances and policies, should approve its budget Oct. 14 in its regular monthly meeting.
Despite receiving a $96,000 increase in operating funds and a $60,000 city bailout after falling short of its Fiscal Year 2013-2014 requirements for salaries, retirement contributions and utility payments, Peters said the FY 2014-2015 budget works with very similar figures compared to its predecessor.
He declined to release the budget to The Dispatch Tuesday since his Park commission bosses have yet to finalize and approve the document. He did, however, release an amended FY 2013-2014 budget to The Dispatch, one that projected $1.07 million in revenues and $1.15 million in combined expenses.
Parks’ financial woes became an issue last month when letters between SPC Chairman Dan Moreland, an auditor and aldermen surfaced and stated the organization ran out of money a month before the end of the fiscal year.
Starkville’s three-person budget committee recommended advancing $60,000 to Parks so it could limp to the year’s financial finish line, and the full board of aldermen went on to approve the bailout and call for more in-depth fiscal reports from the organization.
At the center of Parks’ money woes are its utility bills. In 2013, a report estimated the entity, which is independent of Starkville and outside the control of its aldermen, owed Starkville Electric Department more than $100,000 in back payments and forecasted overdue fees and expected usage at $180,000 for the fiscal year.
After receiving an additional $8,000 in monthly operating revenues this past fiscal year, documents show Parks whittled its arrears down from $112,038.33 in January to about $68,000 in the billing cycle that covered August. Data was absent from the SED-generated report to confirm a year-to-date total for Parks late payments Monday, but Peters said the actual total is about $61,000 since another SED payment was made for September after the city’s bailout occurred.
Parks’ financial woes could continue this fiscal year as aldermen will begin drafting $5,000 per month beginning in April to recoup its bailout. Since April through September represents only six months of the current fiscal year, another six months of $5,000 reductions would be needed in FY 2015-2016 to fully balance the books.
Adding to the problem is the fact that Moreland, in his last-minute push for additional city funding, said in his letter that Parks was running on average $10,000 in the red per month last fiscal year.
Besides more-detailed, public conversations on the state of Parks’ fiscal health in state-mandated reports each quarter, aldermen also called for a comprehensive review of the department’s financials by the end of the year.
Parks hiked rental fees for its numerous pavilions and the Needmore Center, sometimes by more than 50 percent dependent on the time and day of the rental, in a new pricing policy that began today. The increase is the department’s first revenue-grab attempt since Moreland’s letter became public.
Starkville aldermen also suggested Parks increase its player fees – a $30-per-player increase in some cases – by spring to help generate more revenue, but the city cannot force the issue since the entity enjoys autonomy from its elected officials.
While he is open to new sources of revenue, Peters said he worries about how increased player fees could negatively affect both Starkville families and Parks. Higher fees could place burdens on families, which in turn could decrease player signups and negate the possibility for additional monies.
“If we want to keep it comfortable for families to have their kids participate (in youth sporting leagues), I don’t see how we can charge $30 more,” he said. “For a mother of three, that’s an extra $90 they might not have. We’re doing what we can to restructure and try to keep the rates off the kids, but I honestly believe we could lose a good number of participants unless we get help from our sponsors to help take up the slack.
“People say they do want to do what they can to help take the burden off the kids, but I’d really like to see the community pull together for them,” Peters added.
This year, 368 boys and girls participated in youth basketball alone, a Parks report shows. Youth softball netted another 296 participants, while 187 boys and girls represented youth kickball and flag football.
Adult sports leagues included 16 basketball, 39 softball and five flag football teams.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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