How can an educated person believe this? Mayor: City finances ‘on track’ By Karla Bowsher kbowsher@chronicle-tribune August 31, 2014 Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold said his administration feels “pretty confident” about the city’s finances heading into budget hearings this week. He is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Marion City Council meeting, during which he is slated to present the administration’s proposed 2015 budget to council members for a first official reading. Public hearings about the budget begin Wednesday. The hearings give city hall department heads a chance to explain their budgets to the council, gives council members a chance to speak directly with department heads about their budgets and gives the public a chance to be heard. As for the rest of this year, Seybold said he expects the city will again finish the year with positive balances overall. “We’re on track financially and we’re on track to continue building our cash reserves,” he said Friday. “We feel really good.” Records show that spending is on track to exceed that of last year’s, despite the city receiving a slightly smaller budget this year. As of the end of July, the city had spent about $43 million, according to city fund reports. That’s compared to a July 2013 total of about $39 million. Seybold said projecting how the city’s budget will look at the end of the year based on month-to- month data is like trying to project the final score of a basketball game based on the score earlier in the game. Last year, for example, the media and council members scrutinized the city’s financial state earlier in the year, but the administration ended the year positively overall, Seybold said. “Some months are better than others,” he said. “It’s all about expenses and revenue.” Overall, the city brought in about $67.7 million last year and spent about $65.35 million of it, according to fund reports. “The insurance account is trending very well, knock on wood,” he said, “It’s trending nicely, and all the department heads are keeping an eye on their expenditures. So far so good.” The city’s employee health insurance reserve fund balance fell as low as negative $5 million in 2013. Seybold has attributed that to larger 2012 insurance claims. A $3 million loan the city council approved last year to help replenish the insurance fund brought the fund balance up to negative $2 million by the end of 2013, fund reports show. As of the end of July, the balance was up to about negative $867,000. The administration’s proposed 2015 budget was built to further last year’s progress on the insurance fund, Seybold said.  The administration is requesting to raise as much money in property taxes as the state allows, which officials often call the max levy, and keep expenses at their current rate, according to the cover letter written by City Controller Retha Hicks. “The budget enclosed will enable the city to pay down the insurance fund deficit and increase the community’s cash reserve,” she wrote. “Because of past 2012 insurance claims, the city issues tax warrants to support the cash flow.” The Grant County Council, which started its budget hearings last week, is also requesting its max levy. Grant County Council President Jim McWhirt, a former state auditor and school corporation business manager, said local governments can always reduce their budgets later in the process, but the Indiana Department of Government Finance does not allow local governments to increase their budgets beyond the amount they cite in public notices about budget hearings. Just because a local government receives a certain amount of money, though, does not mean they must or should spend all of it. McWhirt cautioned county department heads against doing so last week. The city’s budget this year is about $312,000 smaller than it was last year because council members failed to adopt a budget for 2014. In such cases, the Indiana Department of Government Finance generally gives municipalities the same budget they had the prior year. The DLGF cut out $312,000 from there because projected 2014 revenues were insufficient to support the same size budget the city had the year before. Still, Seybold said his goal this year is to again finish with an overall positive balance and put some of the extra in the insurance reserve and set some aside to build up a cash reserve. At the end of 2013, the city had about $662,000 in its general fund. That’s down from more than $4.8 million at the end of 2007 but up from the $313,000 in that fund at the end of 2012. Marion City Council member Joselyn Whitticker, D-At large, who chairs the council’s Finance and Budget Committee this year, could not be reached for comment Friday. Marion City Council President Henry Smith, D-Ward 4, said he could not comment on the city’s finances thus far this year because, as of Friday, council members had yet to receive balance sheets they request for January through July. Fund reports state how much money went into and out of each of the city’s funds each month and those funds’ balances at the end of the month. Balance sheets include additional financial information like the city’s liabilities — the amounts the city owes but has yet to pay. “I’m hoping that they’ll be at our desks come Tuesday,” Smith said. Though some council members have criticized the administration at public meetings because they felt the city was not forthcoming enough with information or documents, Smith said it’s the second reading of the budget that’s “crucial,” so the administration has a little more time. “We’re just going to see what we have come Tuesday and go from there,” he said.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 14:22:35 +0000
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