Committee wraps up city budget

By Adam Tobias of the Daily Times staff
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 12:40 PM CDT

The Watertown Finance Committee put its final touches on the 2009 city budget Monday evening and the end result calls for the elimination of three city positions and one to remain unfilled.

According to Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger, the 2009 city budget has spending of $15.6 million, which is up about $600,000 from 2008's total of $15.08 million.

Krueger said the overall tax rate is unknown at this time because the city has to wait for the budgets from the school district, vocational schools and Dodge and Jefferson counties. The city tax rate is $7.07 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is up 4.5 percent from 2008's rate of $6.76. According to city Clerk Mike Hoppenrath, the 2009 debt levy of $3,174,288 is up 10 percent from 2008's total of $2,883,139.

Approximately 73 percent of the 2009 budget will go toward city employee salaries and benefits, and by eliminating the three positions and leaving the other one unfilled the city will save about $240,000, Krueger said.

The three positions that have been eliminated are in the park and recreation department, engineering department and recycling department. A position in the city's police department will remain unfilled.

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About $7.5 million of the 2009 budget will be used to pay city employee salaries and health insurance will make up about $1.43 million, Krueger said. He added dental insurance will cost about $130,000.

The city will use nearly $600,000 from the reserve fund balance to pay for city operations, but Krueger said officials will be looking at all aspects of the budget under a microscope.

“At the finance committee meeting (Monday) night we discussed and pointed out over a dozen areas in the city budget that we are going to be studying, starting today,” Krueger said. “We are going to go through, with a fine-tooth comb, every service that we provide in the city and everything we participate in to see if they are cost effective.

“We are going to study every department in the city to determine if reductions can be made in personnel or, on the other hand, if we can eliminate departments altogether and privatize them,” he added. “There will be no stone left unturned and the finance committee and I have agreed that we will not use that entire $600,000 for the 2009 budget because we will, as an ongoing basis, make necessary reductions and cuts wherever we can.”

If the city did not make any further cuts, the city would be using reserve funding to cover about 15 percent of the general budget. The city's goal is between 10 and 20 percent, Krueger said.

“With the perfect storm of levy limits, flat shared revenue from the state, increased health care and utility costs and the extreme weather conditions that we battled this year, it's making us use the reserve fund balance at an unsustainable rate so that cuts have to be made and the brakes have to be put on, and they will be,” Krueger said.

“We will be doing the most thorough study of the expenditures of the city of Watertown that I believe has ever been conducted,” he added.

The mayor said city officials are in the process of considering a referendum for next April's election that would ask residents if they would be willing to surpass levy limits up to a certain percentage.

“The referendum will be under consideration. However, I can make a case for raising taxes above the levy limit rate that the state imposes on us, but our taxpayers are getting hit from every side,” Krueger said. “If they are going to be a partner with us and allow us to trim some services and things like that, we'll make it work.

“We'll see about a referendum, but that's not set in stone yet,” the mayor added. “We still have several months to decide that and in today's economic times we're not sure if it would be successful. But then residents would have to understand that if we can't raise taxes to a certain extent, then we are going to have to cut employees, and when you cut employees, you cut services.”

Some of the larger capital purchases for next year include $435,000 for equipment for the street department and storm water utility and $112,000 for a new 911 system for the dispatch center.

The capital budget also includes $1.5 million for the annual reconstruction of streets, $95,000 for the seal coating of streets and $88,000 for sidewalks. Nearly $100,000 has been earmarked for the repair of the Second Street bridge and another $100,000 will be used for the reconstruction of city parking lots and bridge improvements.

According to Krueger, $1.2 million in the storm water utility has been slated for storm water improvements in the area of South Twelfth Street near Mary Street, and $900,000 will be used for the construction of a detention pond north of Welsh Road.

Krueger said $561,000 has been set aside for the new public works facility, but because the project could come in under budget, all of those funds might not be necessary.

“We have about $561,000 budgeted but we don't feel that we are going to need all of it,” Krueger said.

The mayor said a public hearing on the budget could be set for the common council meeting on Nov. 3. Council members would then look to adopt the budget on Nov. 18.