Pittsburg budget keeps mill levy flat

One of the first tasks charged to then-new Pittsburg City Manager Daron Hall after he started in May was to get the fiscal year 2013 budget under control. Tuesday, that task was completed when the Pittsburg City Commission approved the budget at its regular meeting.

The city approved leaving the mill levy at 45.632 mills despite a slight decrease in assessed valuation. The budget includes a 2 percent raise for city employees.

Theoretically, the city has a budget that includes more than $50 million in expenditures. However, that number is misleading, as Hall and City Finance Director Jon Garrison explained Tuesday night.

The $51.5 million budget includes $4 million in expenditures through the economic development sales tax that never makes its way to the city’s coffers. It also includes roughly $9.7-$9.8 million in interfund transfers that get double-booked during the accounting process (revenues come in to the city but are expensed to a certain fund, then when the money is spent from that fund, is counted a second time as an expense).

Taking out those accounting differences, the budget truly reflects about $38 million in expenses. The city also projects about $29 million in revenues from all city sources. In order to make up the gap, the city also has about $8.8 million of “prior money” leftover from the 2012 budget.

“My goal is to spend less than we ever have and still provide the services we have. I’d ask your permission to consider the budget and adopt it,” Hall told the commission. “...We have tried to budget every expenditure we can see. We will end the year with about $3-4 million in the bank by the end of 2014. But that’s a long way, 15-16 months away.”

Commissioner Marty Beezley noted the number of increases for city employees scheduled in the budget. That includes increases in the city wellness program, state-mandated increases to the employee retirement system (which total about $117,500) and health insurance costs. She proposed that instead of a 2 percent employee pay raise in the budget, that the city consider a 1.5 percent increase instead, which she said would save $43,350, which “could pay for a police officer or fund IT programs and equipment, or we could just save it.”

Mayor John Ketterman expressed his opinion that he’d rather see a set amount for raises rather than a percentage increase. Commissioners Michael Gray, Patrick O’Bryan and Rudy Draper each said they were comfortable with the 2 percent raises.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m comfortable with 2 percent,” O’Bryan said. “It’s really important the employees are aware that what they take home in their paycheck may be all they take home, but it’s not all they cost. Retirement funds, it was mandated we bump up. Health insurance, we’ve seen that come along. That’s truly significant money. I hope the city’s employees are aware of this.”

In the end, the commissioners approved the budget 5-0.

Technically, there was a slight increase in mill levy to one of the portions that make up the 45.632 mill levy. The library fund increased its mill levy by .016 mills, largely to offset the slight decrease in assessed valuation so as not to lose thousands of dollars in grants. The mill levy increase amounts to about $1,863. Hall said that in order to keep the overall mill levy the same, the city found $1,863 in cuts to offset the library mill change.

The city also approved a new airport master plan and layout plan that has been in the works since 2009. The plans include a capital improvements plan over 10 years that starts off with funding a parallel taxiway to one of the main runways. These plans will be submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration for consideration as funds and grants come available.

The plans drew much discussion, including O’Bryan saying how he doubted the need for such a parallel taxiway.

“As long as I have been on the commission and we’ve gotten a wait list from the airport, I’ve seen this parallel taxiway. I’m an advocate for the airport, it’s an important economic incentive for Pittsburg and the surrounding areas,” he said. “But this has been on the agenda for as long as I’ve been here, and many years longer. Have we had any near misses? Have we had accidents or problems with this? The answer is always no... We don’t have a plethora of traffic on this runway, and it’s not like they’ve had to pull into a ditch to let people by on this runway.”

However, he noted that Tuesday’s action was merely about submitting the plan to the FAA, not necessarily approving any projects on that plan.
Officials noted that the first year of the capital improvement plan would not be until the FAA came into the funds to do any projects, which “isn’t going anywhere fast,” Hall said.

In other action, the city commission:

• approved the construction by Pittsburg Beautiful of a restroom, shower facility and pavilion at the RV Park, largely for cross-country bicyclists. The cost, of about $30,000, will be paid by Pittsburg Beautiful, with direction and planning help from Pittsburg State’s Construction Management students.

• changed plans in regard to a water main project near the Quincy Street project. Instead of using a 16” main along the heavily traveled Quincy Street, with residential homes coming off that line, officials proposed moving the 16” main to Madison Street instead, replacing the Quincy Street water line with an 8” line. In total, that will affect the overall price by close to $60,000.

Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 140.