Claremont
The spending plan, however, would shave 1 percent, or about 16 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, off the municipal tax rate if approved as presented.
The City Council will begin its budget deliberations on Wednesday with the goal of a public hearing and final vote on the budget June 22.
Santagate released his budget late Friday and included a cover letter to the council that highlighted the paving portion of the public works budget.
“Pavement has not been funded in the FY 2017 budget, however keep in mind that we have approximately $750,000 remaining from the road bond which equals the goal we had in mind for the 2017 budget,” Santagate wrote.
Additional road repairs include $2.4 million on the Main Street project and $150,000 on the North and Main streets projects.
“It is a tough balancing act,” Santagate said in a phone interview Friday. “The tax rate is at odds with the paving needs.”
Because the paving money for next year is not in the “base” budget, Santagate said, it will be a challenge to come up with $750,000 each year going forward.
In his letter to the council, Santagate also noted that the River Road Tax Increment Finance District will expire on June 30, bringing $11 million in taxable property on to the general fund tax rolls.
Santagate’s projected non-tax revenue of $6.6 million means about $10.4 million to be raised in property taxes.
The budget requests from department heads totaled $18.4 million, which Santagate cut by $1.4 million to arrive at his proposal.
“I gave direction to the department heads to ask for everything they needed so we might fund it now or fund it later, but at least we will have a record of what they need,” the city manager said. “I also encouraged them to bring their case to the council (during the budget review).”
Santagate said the budget represents 53 pay weeks for next year and the city had to absorb a 17.1 percent increase in health insurance premiums. As he has done in the past, Santagate pointed out to the council that significant cuts at the state level going back to 2008 in areas such as retirement for police, fire and teachers, suspension of revenue sharing and “freezing” of the city’s share of the rooms and meals tax has resulted in most of the increases in the city’s annual budgets.
“Of the last eight budgets, 98 percent of the total increase in our budgets is the result of downshifting from the state,” Santagate wrote in his budget overview and summary. “The amount that the tax rate could have been reduced or the amount of road work we could have gotten done is staggering.”
The projected municipal tax rate is $14.81 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The community center budget of nearly $1.2 million is down 1.5 percent. Revenue at the center is projected to fall about 13.6 percent. For the current year, revenue was estimated at $681,000.
Even with that drop in revenue, Santagate said, the city is keeping its “commitment” of having a taxpayer subsidy for the center — $500,000 — equal to or less than the amount of tax dollars needed to pay the recreation expenses when the former Goodwin Community Center was in operation.
Among the budgets being reviewed Wednesday are police, debt and communications 911 as well as revenues.
“I think the city is in very good financial condition,” Santagate said. “We are a tight margin city and always will be, but we are making progress in the tax base with industry and there are good signs all around. I’m pleased with where we are at this point.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
