|
|||
|
City Manager Scott Neal made a summary presentation on the budget to the City Council on Tuesday night. It included highlights of the public engagement budget process with the Citizens League, some discussion, and then a unanimous vote to approve it. See this 27-minute video clip excerpt titled: 2012 Tax Levy and Adopting 2012 Operating Budget:
[reposted from my blog here] Rousing success might be a little too enthusiastic, but I think I can say that it went pretty well. In my blog yesterday, I predicted that we’d get to budget around 9 pm and wrap up the meeting around 10 pm. By golly, that wasn’t to far from the actual time frame. We started consideration of the budget around 8:15 pm and wrapped up the meeting at 10:10 pm. Not bad. The Council approved the budget as proposed. I gave a short summary of the budget contents in yesterday’s post, so I won’t get into that again today. Suffice it to say, a post describing the contents of the budget in detail would be unreadable in length. It might not be all that interesting either. We will put final touches on the approved 2012 budget during the last few days of 2011 as we get ready for the year ahead. This is normally a time when workloads wind down a bit, but we’ve got a lot going on right now, so it’s back at it. Edina is no place for slackers. [reposted from my blog here] Tonight is Budget Night. Well, technically, it’s a City Council Meeting night. But for those of us involved in the city government budget making process, tonight is the night when the City Council takes final action on the proposed City budget for 2012-2013. Tonight is the culmination of a long process and a lot hard work. It’s the night where the City Council can come together nicely or break into factions. What will happen tonight? I am not a betting man, but I believe the Edina City Council will end the night coming together rather breaking apart. The budget proposal that I will be making to them tonight is a reasonable one. It grows some services (economic development, facility management and environment protection), but holds most everything else we do at current levels. It places a stronger emphasis on tighter management of our municipal enterprises (golf course, ice arena, art center, aquatic center, liquor store, etc.). It includes additional funding ($700,000) for capital improvements and ($300,000) for technology upgrades. Our Total Tax Levy increase to support all of the above, and much much more, is 1.79% from 2011. This creates an increase in tax burden for the median single family home in Edina of 2.7%, or $28 for the year. I’ve been in the city management business long enough that I know enough not to call that increase low. But, I will call it modest, particularly when the 2011 Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) is currently projected to end 2011 at +3.5%. It’s about 3 hours until the Council meeting starts. I suspect we will be getting to the budget discussion around 9pm. If all goes well, we will have a budget approved and ready to share with the world by 10pm tonight.
Citizens League Project Director Stacy Becker has compiled summaries from the three public participation budget sessions that were held a couple weeks ago.
See the PDFs:
If you missed these, you have two other opportunities:
When? Tuesday, November 29, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Where? Braemar Golf Course Clubhouse See the live Google map below for directions.
More good news: For those of you who are interested but unable to attend those, we’re hosting an interactive 90-minute budget webinar on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8 pm.
Like the face-to-face sessions, the webinar will be hosted by Stacy Becker of the Citizens League. Edina City Manager Scott Neal will be on hand to answer questions, and I’ll be doing the technical orchestration. Webinar FAQ What do I need to do to participate? How do I participate? What if I can’t attend or can only attend part of it? I have other questions!
Hope to see you there!
It’s happening! Three face-to-face public participation budget meetings are being held the first week of November. Stacy Becker, Project Director at the Citizens League, will be moderating. I’ve added building links and Google maps to the locations in the below press release:
At last week’s meeting, the Edina City Council adopted the preliminary 2012 tax levy and operating budget. See the Staff Report that was in their packet and the video clip of the agenda item when it was discussed.
My goal is to offer the Council a draft budget that they can feel comfortable adopting later that same evening at the Council meeting. The Council must set the City’s 2012 preliminary tax levy at the September 6 Council meeting. They do not need to adopt a budget, just the preliminary tax levy. The preliminary tax levy is the City’s maximum levy, so it’s important to set a number that will be big enough, but not too big. I’ve been working with staff to prepare a General Fund budget draft with a total tax levy increase in 2012 of less than 2% and a levy increase in 2013 of less than 3%. It’s a tough challenge, but I think that trying to keep the levy increase to around this level is important. We want to be sensitive to local economic conditions and keep our municipal services strong. I plan to finish talks with Department Heads tomorrow and get stuff out to Council Members tomorrow afternoon. I’ll update this blog next week with the results of our discussion. Eric Roggeman is the Assistant Finance Director for the City of Edina. He is a very sharp guy. If you’ve never met Eric, pay attention to the City’s budget prep process this year. He’ll be involved in the behind the scenes work, but also in the public presentation work as well.
The City Council will receive the audit at their July 5 City Council meeting. They will also receive a presentation from a representative from the auditing firm at that same meeting. Our City’s financial performance last year was strong, despite the strains in the national, state and local economy. I think that’s all that I’ll say about that for now. If you want to watch the presentation, join us at the City Council on July 5 at 7pm in the City Chambers in City Hall. Or, catch the video rebroadcast of the meeting online starting July 6. |
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2013 City of Edina - All Rights Reserved |
|||
Staff are completing work on the final draft of the proposed 2012-2013 budget. We are giving it finishing touches before sharing with the City Council at the September 6 Council Work Session.
Recent Comments