Since several people have asked me why I voted against approval of the city of Sun Valley 2010 budget, I feel obligated to respond to them and all Sun Valley taxpayers. I was unable to support the budget because:
1.) It has a 20 percent (just under half-million-dollar) increase in personnel expense over 2009 and over three-quarters of a million dollars since 2008.
2.) It uses fund balance reserves (savings accumulated over many years) to pay for these increased costs.
3.) A quarter of a million dollars of city revenue currently being used for debt service on infrastructure bonds will also be used to pay for these increased costs, thereby requiring the payments on future bond debt to come from additional tax levies.
4.) $1.5 million of fund reserves has been spent in the past two years, which together with the approved 2010 amounts will diminish the fund reserve balances to under a half million dollars, exclusive of the mandated 16-week operating reserve. If fund balances continue to be used to pay operating expenses and tax and fee revenue does not increase significantly, this surplus will be depleted in the next two years and cuts in services will have to be made.
5.) Repair of city roads and other infrastructure needs are not addressed in this budget, so while it may appear that the overall spending is declining, this budget has over $1 million less in infrastructure, related debt service and fixed asset purchases than each of the 2008 and 2007 budgets did.
6.) This budget assumes a 3 percent property tax increase on top of a tax rate that is already considerably higher than neighboring jurisdictions, and is difficult to justify in an economic environment of declining labor and material costs.
I hope this explains my position on the budget, which is consistent with my commitment to Sun Valley voters to support a conservative fiscal policy.
Joan Lamb
Sun Valley City Council
