By a unanimous vote, the city of Sedona’s Fiscal Year 2019-20 budget was approved and comes in 9% higher than the current budget.
The vote came during the Sedona City Council’s meeting Tuesday, May 28. The item included a public hearing but there was no one who requested to speak.
The total budget, after changes made throughout the budget workshops, is $51,547,230. This represents a $4.1 million increase from the current fiscal year’s budget. Now that the tentative budget has been approved, it cannot be increased but can be decreased prior final council approval on Tuesday, June 25.
According to a city report, the tentative budget as proposed includes a significant investment in the priorities established in the Sedona Community Plan. This includes transportation improvements, land use planning of Community Focus Areas, investment in infrastructure to maintain the city’s roads and streets, preservation and improvement of the city’s parks, affordable housing program funding and economic diversification program funding.
In terms of the major funding sources in the next fiscal year, it’s anticipated that 39% [$21,245,800] will come from city sales taxes, 16% [$8,472,823] from charges from services, 11% from use of capital funds balances [$6,075,094] and 9% from bed taxes [$4,769,300].
Regarding the $4 million increase, City Manager Justin Clifton said half of that comes via the increase to the affordable housing fund. A potential property acquisition for affordable housing comes in at $500,000 and additional personnel and merit raises make up the bulk of the increase.
“I think what is important to mention is that every dollar we’re spending either has a new revenue source behind it or spends excess revenues from previous years after we account for all fund balances and numerous other current and future liabilities, including pension costs, building, fleet and equipment replacement, etc.,” Clifton said the day after the meeting. “In other words, we’ve prioritized maintaining a very strong financial position first and only then spending what is left over on these other important community priorities.”
As far as expenditures, Budget and Accounting Supervisor Jessica Tucker said $29,163,000 will be spent on personnel and operations, another $13,954,000 on capital improvement projects, $5,730,000 for debt services [bond payments] and $2,700,000 on contingencies.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m beating a dead horse but we’ve never spent $14 million on capital improvements. We’re usually at $8 million, $9 million or maybe $10 million,” Vice Mayor John Martinez said.
To that, Clifton said they always want to set a number that is realistic but never too small since the spending authority, once the budget is approved, is fixed. He pointed out that this upcoming budget is unique in that nearly $5 million in capital improvement projects will begin just prior to the new fiscal year beginning.
“If we spent 80% or 90% of this, we’d be good,” he said. “We’d rather spend 80% than 101% and find ourselves in a situation toward the end of the fiscal year where we actually have to delay projects because we’ve reached our spending authority.”
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
