Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
FISCAL YEAR 2017-18 BUDGET WORKSHOP #3 (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
This is the third budget workshop and staff suggests, due to the magnitude of the financial issues facing the community, that we hold a fourth budget workshop on June 6th. The Council Budget Subcommittee has held six meetings and additional meetings are being scheduled this month to consider additional budget reductions and revenue increases.
The draft FY17-18 budget deficit is currently $6,760,223 or 8.9% of General Fund revenue. The City has historically run deficit budgets for the last eight of eleven years.
The draft deficit cannot be cured by simply making cuts to the expenditure budget. Many of the City's expenditures are tied to public safety and mandated programs required by federal, state and local law. The community has expectations for City services, such as community services programs, parks and street maintenance.
Many of these services are provided by City employees, further complicating potential budget cuts that may result in lay-offs or furloughs. Reducing the budget deficit will require a combination of difficult decisions to reduce services, and increase or establish new revenue sources. Staff is suggesting a multi-year process to reduce our budget deficit.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
PROVIDE additional direction regarding the draft FY17-18 budget.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action deemed appropriate by City Council.
IV. BACKGROUND
To date, the City Council has held two budget workshops to provide direction for the draft FY17-18 budget: March 21st and April 18th. The City Council Budget Subcommittee (Mayor Pro Tem Davis-Holmes and Councilmember Hicks) has met six times to review various staff proposals and provide feedback (March 16th, March 30th, April 17th, April 26th, May 3rd, and May 10th) with additional meetings being set to complete their rev...
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