Hiring a grant writer, creating a new roads-focused infrastructure levy fee and developing a new drainage utility are some projects city council is considering to help increase revenues to address the capital budget’s nearly $ 9 million shortfall.
This article looks at some of those options.
Council has not yet made any decisions and will discuss these possibilities during its budget meeting tonight and possibly on Monday, Dec. 18.
Cutting other water/wastewater projects
City administration has suggested that it could further reduce water and wastewater projects and transfer the waterworks infrastructure levy — dedicated to cast iron — to the general capital reserve. This would send over $1.7 million to that account next year and over $8.6 million during the next five years.
Finance director Brian Acker said that instead of proceeding with this idea, city hall believes it can reduce projects in this utility and still fund the Crescent View Lift Station project. He likened this scenario to “robbing ourselves from one area to try to provide for another.”
Roads-focused levy
City administration has suggested that it could create an infrastructure levy of $100 per taxable property dedicated to rehabilitating and renewing paved roads, which could generate over $1.68 million annually.
Residents have been requesting something like this for a while to improve and maintain roads, said Acker. However, city administration is not recommending it because of the financial pressures the community is facing.
Coun. Doug Blanc said this would be a tough sell because even if the city implemented the levy, many people would likely point out how poor roads still are.
A new drainage utility
City administration is suggesting that council establish a drainage utility for storm sewers and charge homeowners and businesses a monthly fee for the service, similar to garbage and recycling fees. This could remove $7 million from the capital reserve budget over five years.
Furthermore, this could eliminate operating budget costs and free up $344,321.
Acker said this wouldn’t occur immediately next year — probably in 2025 — since city hall would have to conduct plenty of research first. However, it would help address the municipality’s need to upgrade storm sewers.
Slumping properties
City hall is suggesting that it establish a slumping property acquisition program of $500,000 a year to purchase properties most affected by slumping land. This could eliminate slump remediation risks and save roughly $7.8 million in capital costs in the five-year budget.
Acker said administration disagrees on whether to proceed with this since some believe mitigation is money poorly spent while other directors argue the opposite. He noted that this program would be similar to the city’s “very successful” flood-prone property program from decades ago, where instead of spending millions on flood prevention, the municipality simply purchased property from homeowners.
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, said his department does not know how many properties are affected by slumping, only that it’s likely “a handful.” Meanwhile, this program wouldn’t be as broad as the flood-prone initiative.
However, he pointed out that removing the slope monitoring and remediation program next year, as proposed, won’t eliminate the existing slumping risks. Instead, it would remove city hall’s ability to track and maintain those areas.
Coun. Heather Eby said the monitoring program would likely be important in the future, while this is a huge risk and she wasn’t willing to put some homeowners in jeopardy anymore than they are.
Hiring a grant writer
City hall has suggested hiring someone full-time to fill a grant writer, sponsorship and partnership funding position to find capital money and bring in $1 million annually.
Acker said that city administration has not done a good job of finding financial sponsorships and partnerships over the years, as directors have performed this task off the corner of their desks rather than being focused. Moreover, while finding large grants is important, bringing in smaller ones — $25,000 or $100,000 — is also important.
Police service capital request
City hall is suggesting that council deny the police service’s new-building-related capital request for $1 million next year and yearly until 2028.
Acker said the police board has amended its budget and removed this request, so this idea wouldn’t help next year.
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