making sense of the city budget
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POST-BULLETIN • www.PostBulletin.com SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012 A5
BackgroundPage edited by Mike Dougherty, [email protected]
City tax rates, 2002-2011
40%41%42%43%44%45%46%47%48%49%50%
44.141%
41.376%
2002 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11
Rochester Public Utilities 207 (up 3)Police department 164.5 (up 0.33)Fire department 104 (no change)Public works 87 (no change)Park and recreation 72 (up 0.58)General government 63.5 (up 1.5)Other public safety 57 (no change)Library 49.75 (no change)Sewer utility 39 (up 0.5)Miscellaneous 6 (no change)Storm water utility 5.79 (up 0.79)Parking administration 4 (no change)Total 859.54 (up 6.7)
2000 2003 2006 2009 2011 2012
754.70810 830.75
864.25 852.84 859.54
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
City employment (FTEs)
Total: $162,411,666
Total: $162,411,666
Fines, forfeits and penalties$1,027,268 (0.6%)
Licenses and permits$2,545,915 (1.6%)
Prior year revenue$5,560,687 (3.4%)
Other taxes$9,196,022 (5.7%)
Intergovernmental$29,227,934 (18%)
Miscellaneous$24,895,766 (15.3%)
Charges for services$42,023,634 (25.8%)
Tax levy andtax abatements
$47,934,440 (29.5%)
Internal service funds$2,661,378 (1.6%)
Debt service$2,691,791 (1.7%)
Storm water utility$3,453,403 (2.1%)
Miscellaneous$3,819,813 (2.4%)
Airport / customs$4,154,474 (2.6%)
Unallocated /contingency
$4,521,881 (2.8%)
Parking$4,487,490 (2.8%)
Other public safety$4,781,871 (2.9%)
Transit$5,031,453 (3.1%)
Library$6,188,141 (3.8%)
General government$7,639,989 (4.7%)
Public works(non-capital)
$10,661,350 (6.6%)
Park and recreation$13,469,854 (8.3%) Fire department
$13,591,231 (8.4%)
Policedepartments$20,434,579
(12.6%)
Sanitarysewer utility
$24.459,361 (15.1%)
Capitalimprovements
$30,393,607 (18.7%)
0
Mills Properties Inc.
RochesterDevelopment Inc.
Maine Land LLC
IRET Properties
Thomson Reuters
BGD5Properties
IBM
MEPC ApacheProperties
Sunstone Properties
Mayo Clinic $5,906,018
$1,123,512
$1,089,892
$825,239
$688,118
$560,494
$528,207
$456,322
$358,328
$335,497
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
$5,000,000
$6,000,000
8.85% of totalRochester taxes
Top 10 Rochester taxpayers
2000 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘120
5
10
15
20
$25
Library
General government
Park and rec
Public works
Fire
Police
City government fund, 2000-2012
Your property tax bill might suggest otherwise, but Rochester actually reduced its budget by about $13 million for 2012.
It’s not as simple as that, though. There’s a lot more that to goes into the city’s $162 million budget than just the $47.9 million tax levy.
The city relies on service charges, license fees, sales taxes and state and federal grants, too.
Next year’s budget cut is attributable to a $20 million
reduction in the capital improvements budget. Capital projects are largely paid for with revenues other than property taxes.
Perhaps a truer barometer of the cost of government is the operating budget. That piece of the budget is increasing by 2.4 percent, to $121 million.
Employee compensation is budgeted to increase less than 2 percent next year. The costs of fuel, equipment and and other supplies are increasing by 5.5 percent.
2000-2010 data consists of actual spending. 2011 data are budget figures. 2012 data are proposed budget figures.
City unreserved fund balance
0
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
2003 2006 2008 2010
34%
42%
35%
40%
0
20,000,000
30,000,000
40,000,000
$50,000,000
’00’99’98’97’96’95’94’93’92’91’90 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12
$47,934,440
$10,561,106
City tax levies, 1990-2012
January through July
State legislative changes are monitored and evaluated for local impact.
June through August
Finance Department issues instructions to city departments for preparation of the following year’s budget and capital improvements program, both due by the end of August. Each department prepares its own operating budget based on a combination of actual expenditures for the previous two years, the current year’s budget, and actual to-date figures for the current year. Each department also estimates revenues from its various user charges and fees.
July through September
Finance prepares estimates for employee service costs, utilities, insurance and other general costs.
A request for information is sent to outside nonprofit agencies to submit their funding requests.
Sept. 15
Deadline for city to adopt preliminary tax levy. The final levy cannot exceed the preliminary levy.
September through November
City administrator reviews budget request information from each department and meets with each department head to discuss budget.
December
City council holds sessions reviewing overall city budget, department, by department. Truth-in-taxation hearings are held.
Final budget must be adopted by Dec. 20.
Graphics and design: Rick Dahl / [email protected]: Jeffrey Pietes / [email protected]
Where the money goes
City revenue, 2012
As a percentage of total expenditures*
As a percentage of tax capacity
2012 taxable tax capacity
*Minnesota State Auditor recommentds a balance sufficient to cover five months of expenses, or 41.7%.
Making sense of the city budget
City government workforce, 2012
This page is to help readers understand the budget process, what the trends have been and what the challenges are. To comment on this page, call 285-7748 or send an email to [email protected]
For links to related websites, go to
PostBulletin.com
City budget timeline
(In millions of dollars)