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LL looks at revenue options, cutting costs
7/21/2010 10:16:43 AM
Splash Editor
The city of Liberty Lake will need to ask some tough questions in the coming months: What services are essential to the community? What can be pared back? And what additional revenues can be tapped?
Those questions are part of an ongoing discussion the city is facing with a formidable budget year coming in 2011, with an estimated $700,000 shortfall to just maintain the status quo.
At the City Council meeting Tuesday, Councilman David Crump said city officials, with citizen feedback, have identified three main ways to shore up the shortfall: reducing expenses, which only will take the city so far, Crump said; organizing special events for additional revenue, which will bring in small amounts, he pointed out; and adding revenue, such as a utility tax.
City officials say the economy is continuing to plague city coffers with declining sales and property taxes, which make up nearly 80 percent of the city's revenue.
The projected deficit is the largest in recent memory, city officials say, and it represents more than 10 percent of the city's $6 million general fund, which includes police, park maintenance and streets.
In the last few years, the city has scaled back expenses, deferring street maintenance and not purchasing new vehicles for the city's police force. For 2010, the Council approved a $12.28 million budget, about 5 percent less than the year before.
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The community expects a certain level of services, and deferred expenses and a bare-bones budget will make it tough to carve out more, city officials said Tuesday.
For additional revenue, the city is allowed to raise property taxes 1 percent each year, an option the Council turned down the last two years. The city also is one of the few in the region that doesn't charge a utility tax. City staff said a 6 percent utility tax (the maximum allowed without voter approval) for cities the size of Liberty Lake could bring in an estimated $750,000 to $1.2 million annually.
At the next Council meeting, Aug. 3, the Council will look at specific budget scenarios that "best fit our community," Mayor Wendy Van Orman said.
"I think there is a silver lining in the requirement to reassess what our priorities are, how we want to run the city," Councilman Ryan Romney said. "Our dependence on income from builders has made us more beholden to accept constant sprawl. Maybe a reassessment there is not a bad thing."
On Tuesday, the Council emphasized the need for residents to give feedback about city services and new taxes. The city is looking into a community survey and making a "budget calculator" available on the city's website for residents to play with budget numbers, city officials said.
"They have the opportunity to sit down and say, ‘This is what we want our city to look like,'" Councilman Odin Langford said. "They can leave it up to seven people, but you get what you get. Or you can pick up the phone, write an e-mail and say, ‘This is what is important to me.'"