Proposed budget would increase levy $1

Washington City Administrator Brent Hinson presented a proposed budget to the city council Wednesday which included a $1 increase in the city?s property tax levy. The increase would bring the city?s levy to approximately $15.98 per $1,000 valuation. Homes are now taxed at 51.5 percent of their value instead of 48.5 percent as they were last year. That means a person with a $100,000 house would pay about $820 in taxes to the city under the proposal, about $100 more than they would have paid last year. In 2011, when the city?s tax levy was $14.98, it accounted for about one-third of a Washington resident?s tax bill.

Hinson?s proposed budget includes a modest increase in spending of 0.25 percent, not including capital projects. The budget includes a 2.5 percent increase in salary for non-union city employees. He said the city is projected to have a deficit balance of $36,000 by July 1 of this year. Under Hinson?s 2012-2013 budget, the city would end next fiscal year with a budget surplus of $173,000, which would go toward paying down the city?s debt.

The budget does not include increases to the water or sewer rates, although Hinson said the council should consider an ordinance to increase the rates every year automatically by 3.5 percent beginning in 2013.

Some departmental budgets would grow under the proposal while others would shrink. The police department?s budget would increase $30,000 to accurately reflect the amount of workers? compensation paid, which Hinson said was done incorrectly in previous budgets. The fire department?s budget would increase $56,000. Development services, formerly known as engineering, would decrease $30,000.

The library?s budget would decrease $4,400. Hinson said library director Debbie Stanton declined a pay increase and instead asked that the increase in wages be distributed among her employees. The parks budget would increase $36,000. The parks department would pay $5,000 toward resurfacing the tennis court, an expense it would share with the Washington School District. It would also improve the Green Field ballfield, install irrigation equipment at the new soccer fields on the north side of town and add a backstop and fence at Watertower Park.

The pool?s budget would increase $7,000 in order to cover increases in water usage and in workers? compensation premiums. Hinson announced that Nick Duvall of the maintenance and construction department would become the cemetery sexton and that the cemetery?s budget would increase $6,000, partly to pay for a new $12,000 mower.

Hinson spoke about the outside entities the city gives money to. He said he?d prefer if those entities requested money in the fall and that the council consider them separately from its departments. He also said he would like 10 percent of the Riverboat Foundation?s contribution to the city to go toward these outside entities. The outside entities the city partially funds include the Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG), Main Street Washington, PAWS ?N? More, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Tourism Committee and the Independence Day fireworks.

The city has never set aside money for unemployment compensation, Hinson noted. He said that is very risky because a former employee who claimed unemployment compensation could cost the city a lot of money.

Some of the capital improvement projects the city will likely undertake in the next few years are laying a mill and overlay on South Iowa Avenue, building a new water tower and remodeling the former library.

The city took out a bond in 2009 for $3.5 million, half of which was to be used to buy land for the wastewater plant and the other half was to build a new water tower. Hinson said land for the wastewater plant was bought but that the money designated for the water tower has been used for other things such as local matches for street projects. He said the city will transfer money into the capital projects fund before it does water improvements.

Councilor Bob Shellmyer said the city should try harder to reduce its budget. He asked Hinson why there was any increase in the budget at all if the city was in debt. Hinson said the budget increase is below inflation and that the city has to maintain a certain level of service to its residents. Shellmyer suggested that some equipment purchases be pushed back another year, but Hinson said the equipment can only be pushed so far before it fails.

Councilor Bob Shepherd said, ?The departments have been hurting since June or July. We?ve been holding back very hard. [City Accountant] Joe Myers has had a tight fist on it.?

Hinson said layoffs are the only way to drastically reduce spending in the short term. He said he agreed with Shellmyer that expenses could and should be cut in the long term.

Shellmyer said, ?If we could just squeeze out a little more from the budget, people will be a lot happier.?

Hinson said he didn?t want to give the council the impression that cuts alone could eliminate the debt.