The council has a number of key responsibilities – none more
important than the town’s budget. Nor does any one responsibility require more
focus, time and effort than the annual budget process. #gladitsover
We completed that process Thursday evening when the council
unanimously approved Cary’s FY16 budget. The budget totals $295 million - $218
million for operations and $77 million for capital.
Operations is exactly what it says – the day to day
operations of the town’s functions and departments to include police, fire,
administration, public works etc…
Capital is the brick and mortar part – the police and fire
stations themselves, community centers, water treatment plants, infrastructure
etc…
The operations budget is roughly a 4% increase over last
year’s budget – mainly due to the addition of 25 new town employees to include
an animal control officer, police officer, three new firefighters, customer
service representatives and a position to administer Cary’s new open-data
program. #lorisbaby This will increase the number of Cary town employees to
1255 – or 8.1 employees per 1000 residents; one of the lowest employee to
citizen ratios in the state and lower than last year’s ratio of 8.2. The town
of Cary continues to do more with less. #carystaffisawesome
The capital budget is roughly $25 million higher than FY15
yet $25 million lower than FY14 – sounds odd I know, but given the size and
scope of capital projects, such variation really isn’t out of the ordinary. A
seven mile long water pipeline (to increase water treatment capacity and
reliability) in this year’s budget is $19 million alone. We didn’t have to
build/fund that last year. #thatsoneexpensivepipe
This was our second year using the new priority-based budgeting
process. I talked about that change in process in my blog post about last year’s
budget so I won’t repeat it again, but if you aren’t familiar with it and would
like to learn more, please click here.
I will say however, that I prefer this method over the
previous as it better removes politics from the process. Priorities are ranked
by staff based on factual data and need – not politics. #politiciansruinstuff
The first draft of the budget presented to council
recommended a three cent tax increase – two cents to cover the voter approved
bond projects and an additional cent to cover a projected loss of $1.5 million
in revenue as a result of the North Carolina General Assembly’s elimination of
the business privilege license tax. #thanksformakinguswholeguys
However, after updated revenue and spending projections –
not to mention a lot of calculating and recalculating by the fine folks in Cary’s
budget office - it was determined that the third cent increase was no longer
necessary.
To give an idea of just how hard Cary staff worked to squeeze
every penny possible, after reevaluating interest rates and current rates of
return, they found an extra $340.00 in Cary’s fleet fund investment earnings.
Seriously, in a $295 million budget, they worked to find 340 bucks.
#Karlthebudgetslayer
Staff also identified an additional $57,000 in beer and wine
tax revenue. #staythirstymyfriends
Other notable items in this year’s budget include:
·
A new fire pumper truck
·
$800,000 in sidewalk and pedestrian facility improvements
·
Kilmayne water storage tank (water tower)
·
ADA and access improvements to Sertoma
Amphitheater
·
Resurfacing of 23 miles of town streets
·
Remove the stupid medians and install a traffic
signal at Morrisville Parkway + Carpenter Upchurch intersection
·
Support for the town-wide Google and AT&T
gigabit fiber installations
·
Increases transportation development fees paid
by developers by 10%
Not surprisingly there just isn’t enough money to do
everything the town would like to do. To add anything into the budget means
something has to come out. Its really no different than how you prioritize and
balance your own budgets. Do you get the new roof or paint the house instead?
Do you buy a new car or keep the old one going another year?
#Iknowagoodmechanic
That 800 grand in sidewalk improvements above was originally
projected at $1.6 million. But to help eliminate that extra cent tax increase
and make the desired improvements at Morrisville Parkway and Carpenter Upchurch,
something had to give. That’s but one example of the tradeoffs we made.
I can’t thank the folks in Cary’s budget office, our department
directors and Town Manager, Ben Shivar enough for all their efforts. This was,
in my opinion, one of our more difficult years given the continuing challenges
with the economy and changes in state law – not to mention we had already cut
quite a bit in previous years to cope with the recession.
Special thanks also to the many citizens who provided input
during the budget process – it was very helpful as we worked to better identify
what was most important to the community. #ilovecary
