Savings emerge in Ketchum budget
Newest plan would establish $1.25 million in city reserve fund
By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer
Under a revised budget proposal for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, the city of Ketchum might not spend a single dollar of its monetary reserves.
Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc this week issued a new draft of the city?s budget that calls for eliminating nearly $200,000 of spending from the city?s reserve fund, called a fund balance.
The revised 2004-2005 budget proposes approximately $7,915,000 in spending through the city?s general fund, which covers all of the city?s expenses except those made by the water and sewer departments?which are managed separately through self-sustaining ?enterprise? funds.
The city is now proposing to spend approximately $9.65 million through its general, water and sewer funds in the 2004-2005 fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1.
On Monday, Aug. 2, the City Council approved a resolution that sets a public hearing on the proposed budget for Monday, Aug. 16.
The resolution establishes the revised $7,915,000 general-fund figure as the maximum spending amount the city can approve in the 2004-2005 budget. The council?which will review the draft budget one final time in an Aug. 9 special meeting?will be allowed to make cuts and adjustments but cannot increase the city?s proposed expenses.
Pursuant to orders from the council, LeBlanc has made numerous ad-justments to the budget in recent weeks.
One major change has restored to the city?s fund balance nearly $197,000 that had been earmarked to cover various general-fund expenses.
?It?s a combination of making cuts and revising some revenue,? LeBlanc said.
Going into the current 2003-2004 fiscal year, the city had a fund bal-ance of nearly $1.4 million. The current year?s budget calls for spending more than $525,000 from the fund balance to cover expenses, reducing the city?s reserves to approximately $850,000.
However, the city now foresees spending only $131,000 of its reserve funds this fiscal year, largely because revenues are soaring above projected levels and expenses are coming up well short of what was planned.
With no monies scheduled to be extracted from the fund balance in the 2004-2005 fiscal year, the reserve fund is now projected to be restored to a more healthy $1.25 million.
LeBlanc said he has not delineated exactly how much the city should have in the fund balance to protect itself against unanticipated revenue shortfalls.
?I would expect the council to adopt some firm policies that would establish how much we should set aside.?
The city administrator said his goal is ensure the city has enough cash to maintain a solid credit rating, protect itself against an economic downturn and be able to establish a long-term capital-improvement fund.
The city has developed a long-range capital improvement plan but almost all of the proposed projects?including one to construct a new city hall?are currently not funded.
