City Council prepares to vote on ’06 budget

Published 10:40 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

At the end of October, Snoqualmie Mayor Fuzzy Fletcher submitted his preliminary budget for 2006.

The City Council is expected to review the budget for approval at its Dec. 12 meeting. Final numbers are expected at that time.

In Fletcher’s “State of the City Address and 2006 Preliminary Budget Message,” he said that he is requesting a citywide budget of $20,735,204 with the general fund accounting for $7,145,816 of the total budget.

This is a $2,152,847 increase from the 2005 budget of total funds, though the projected actual total for 2005 is expected to be closer to about $20.5 million.

“These increases are a result of the growth of general government services that our increased population and size requires,” Fletcher said in the prepared statement.

The difference was accounted for primarily by the real estate excise tax, which produced revenues in excess of $1.3 million from the 2005 budgeted revenue of about $2.6 million. The 2006 preliminary budget allocates for the real estate excise tax to generate about $5.2 million in revenue.

The numbers from the 2005 and 2004 budgets are only used as reference points to plan the 2006 budget, financial officer Harry Oestreich said.

He said the 2005 projections let the City Council know it has two reference points: what the council approved for 2005 and what the actual numbers are projected to be for that year “to see if the preliminary 2006 budget has a reasonableness to it or that they [the numbers] are reasonable.”

Oestreich noted that budgets are conservatively estimated, as are revenues.

The 2006 preliminary budget does not include the money for capital improvement. With that included, the budget is expected to increase by about $3.6 million, according to Oestreich.

The projection numbers for 2005 were developed in August of this year, so Oestreich noted that the final actual numbers may differ. Final numbers for 2005 will not be available until around April 2006.

The 2006 preliminary budget plans to spend about $1.2 million for fire and about $2.2 million for police, a minimal increase from the 2005 budget original allocation.

The 2006 preliminary budget expects to allocate about $850,000 for parks.

The 2005 initial budget allowed for a little more than $800,000 in spending for parks, while the projected funding for 2005 is actually expected to be a little less than $700,000. This difference was mostly because of an unexpected savings earned from a decrease in hiring seasonal and part-time workers, as well as from a decrease in use of professional services such as landscaping, explained Oestreich.

The 2006 preliminary budget notes the funding for expenditures and revenues in general funds, special revenue funds, debt service funds, enterprise funds and internal service funds.

General funds account for things such as salary and wages, employee benefits, services and supplies for police, fire, the mayor and council, as well as for finance and administration services. Reserve funds handle cash flow, contingency and operations reserves.

Special revenue funds are funds restricted to specific activities that cost or earn money such as street maintenance, permits, property tax, operating grant earnings, hotel/motel lodging taxes, recycling and drug enforcement.

Debt service funds and enterprise funds focus on bonds, park irrigation and utilities.

Internal service funds go to information technology, equipment repair/replacement and risk management.

Information about the budget can be found at www.ci.snoqualmie.wa.us under “Public Documents.”