For the week of July 30 - August 5, 2003

Council cuts
$1.1 million from
budget plan

Ketchum draft budget balanced;
some cash left

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Ketchum City Council members on Tuesday, July 29, made additional cuts to the proposed 2003-2004 city budget, adding to more than $1 million in cuts made in the last 12 days.

By establishing on Tuesday an additional $100,000 in revenues and cutting $45,000 in projected expenditures, council members brought closer to balance what was once a huge gap between projected expenses and revenues for the next fiscal year.

Prior to Tuesday’s special budget meeting, council members, since first considering the draft budget on July 17, had cut $1,058,812 from a set of proposed expenditures issued by city department heads.

Currently, the city is projecting revenues of $7,365,315 for the 2003-2004 fiscal year, weighed against projected expenditures of $7,939,366. If no additional changes are made to the draft budget, the city will use $574,051 of its reserve funds to balance the budget.

With the city’s overall reserve fund projected to hold $1,258,903 at the end of the current 2002-2003 fiscal year, City Administrator Ron LeBlanc on Tuesday said the city should now have $684,852 in its reserve fund next fiscal year.

LeBlanc said Tuesday his overall goal is to develop budgets in future years that do not use reserved funds to cover proposed expenses. "We want to end up where current revenues equal current expenses," he said. "We are spending more this year than we are taking in."

The newest set of numbers brought clarity to a budget drafting process that has confused some council members and members of the public with an abundance of evolving figures.

Council President Randy Hall said he believes some of the complications that arose in reviewing the new budget could have come from differences between LeBlanc and his predecessor, Jim Jaquet, in how they composed and presented the budget.

However, Hall said after a series of budget proceedings last week that he is confident the 2003-2004 budget and the city’s overall finances will be in good order before the council considers approving the budget on Aug. 18. "When the dust settles from all of this, I’d guess we’ll be pretty close to where we thought we’d be," he said.

Councilman Maurice Charlat agreed on Tuesday, saying he believes the new budget documents released by LeBlanc suggest Ketchum "is on the road to financial health."

The newest figures released Tuesday by LeBlanc indicate that the city—by the end of the current fiscal year—expects to have spent only $158,895 of its cash reserves to cover expenses.

LeBlanc noted Tuesday that the reserve money will come from $1,417,798 in reserve funds belonging to the city at the beginning of the 2002-2003 fiscal year. A sum of $918,000 separated from the overall reserve to balance the 2002-2003 budget will—apart from the city’s anticipated $158,895 cost overrun—stay intact, the latest figures suggest.

In closing the gap between projected revenues and expenditures in the 2003-2004 budget by approximately $1.2 million, council members cut the proposed funding in 10 separate city departments. Significant cuts were made to the proposed budgets for the Planning and Street departments.

A project planned for this summer to pave First Avenue in central Ketchum has been postponed until next year, when city officials will determine if enough revenue is coming in to proceed.

The council last week tentatively agreed to issue $369,700 to fund the Ketchum-Sun Valley Chamber & Visitors Bureau, $30,000 for the Peak Bus and $38,500 to support Wood River Rideshare commuter programs.

The draft budget also includes approximately $1 million to cover healthcare programs for some 80 city employees. Healthcare costs for the city rose 16 percent for next year, LeBlanc said.

At their meeting Tuesday, council members agreed to cut from 3 percent to 2 percent an automatic cost-of-living salary increase for city employees. That decision saved the city $36,000.

Council members are scheduled on Aug. 18 to consider a resolution to adopt the budget. A public hearing on the budget and consideration of a final, binding appropriations ordinance is scheduled for Sept. 2.

 

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