City takes first look at annual budget

The city of Yuma is striving to maintain the status quo in the coming budget year, faced with rising costs and a sluggish economy.
 
"It is to be considered a 'flat year,'" City Administrator Mark Watson said.
 
The 2008-2009 budget, which is estimated at more than $383 million, is down 24.41 percent from this year, according to presentations made to the Yuma City Council this week.
 
This was just the first round of budget talks. It will probably be approved in July.
 
Most of this is due to a 43.15 percent decline in funds for the capital improvement program. Last year, $285 million was budgeted for improvements in city facilities. Only $162 million is budgeted this coming year.
 
Some improvement projects, such as the completion of construction on the third floor of City Hall, have been deferred until "better economic times," according to the budget document.
 
This reduction in capital improvements is also partially due to the Agua Viva Water Treatment Plant on Avenue 9E, which should be complete next year. About $50 million has been expended on it - that amount is no longer included in the capital improvement budget.
 
But external factors are the major contributors to Yuma's sluggish budget. The price of oil and gasoline has made careful budgeting necessary, Watson said, in case prices continue to go up.
 
Though the residential housing market is expected to pick up from its current slump, that will depend on state and national credit impacts.
 
The primary source of revenue for the $66 million general fund, sales tax, is expected to increase by 5 percent for the coming year. However, those projections for 2009 are far more conservative than they were a year ago, when the city expected to see even more money coming in.
 
Rising costs for gasoline and dumping have prompted some council members to propose increasing solid waste fees.
 
The current fee is $6.25 per month for city residents but that would need to almost double to $12 or $13 to meet the $1.9 million cost city staff says they expend for the service. An incremental increase of $2 or $3 a year could be put into place to offset it slowly.
 
Councilman Paul Johnson spoke out against raising fees but Deputy Mayor Ross Hieb said they may have to do it this year. He said if they didn't get that money from solid waste it would be $1.9 million less for parks or public safety services.
 
"There's nothing free. We're paying for it, one way or another, and we're robbing Peter to pay Paul to do it," Hieb said.
 
No decision on solid waste fees was made in the budget hearings. It will probably be an item on an upcoming council meeting.
 
For the most part, however, city services will remain level next year. Watson said departments were advised "this was not going to be a year to request new personnel or start new initiatives."

City employees may see a modest pay increase if revenues hold up as projected, however.
 
Human Resources Director Jack Dodd said a labor market survey shows Yuma salaries lag behind the median in 18 comparable Arizona cities in all 43 employee categories they examined.
 
It would cost about $4 million to bring all city employees up to the median salary. That is not in the budget this year but Watson said they will put $1.3 million toward employee pay raises, if revenues remain stable through the coming year.
 
Those raises would come in February.
 
"We're not going to see ($4 million) but we can began to address some of our problems," Watson said.


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Sarah Reynolds can be reached at
sreynolds@yumasun.com or 539-6847.