The Hoquiam City Council is expected to vote Nov. 27, on a 2019-20 biennial budget that is balanced and provides for four new job positions.
The numbers
City finance director Corri Schmid said the upcoming biennium’s budget is a little more than $54.5 million, compared to the last biennial budget of around $58.2 million. Despite the numbers, the city has not cut its proposed budget for the next biennium, she said.
“We are not decreasing the budget, we just had projects in the last budget that were funded by grants,” she said. “Like the library grant is huge; in 2017-18 the city got some grants for additional revenue that offset expenditures.”
Needed positions
The budget includes funds for four new positions, all expected to relieve some of the overtime expenses currently needed to perform those duties.
Code compliance officer: “We have a current, part-time code compliance officer, and we’d like to make them full-time,” said Schmid.
Records clerk: “We have a jail that is very busy and there is a lot more record keeping that needs to be done,” said Schmid. “The records clerk can manage those as well as help out at the front counter.”
14th police officer: In the current 2017-18 budget, the city budgeted money for a 14th officer, said Schmid, but went along with a union proposal to use the budgeted money for salary increases. “So when we went into union negotiations we had to pick and choose one or the other,” she said. This year, if approved, the money budgeted in the 2019-2020 biennial budget will be used to add another officer. The City Council was told at its last meeting that the addition would cut down on overtime salary expenses.
An additional public works maintenance worker: “Our public works department has seen a big hit in (terms of) losing staffing; we like to bring positions back when we can.”
Tax revenue
One of the challenges of creating a municipal budget is state law limiting property tax rate increases to 1 percent, said Schmid. However, assessed values of properties in Hoquiam were up in 2018, so homeowners would see an overall decline in their property taxes in 2019.
According to a table presented to the City Council by Schmid, in 2018 the city’s portion of taxes from a regular levy on a $100,000 home was $329.76 annually. In 2019, that number drops to $313.03, more than $16 less. When emergency medical services bonds and refund levies are included, the 2018 tax levy per $100,000 in value was $448.97; the number drops to $412.83 in 2019, a little more than $36 less.
All told, the city projects that it will take in $1,381,450 in the regular property tax levy in 2019. Add in the EMS levy, fire truck bond and ambulance bond and revenues from property taxes are expected to total $1,825,451.
Ambulance fund
Schmid said the city’s ambulance fund “Looks good. It still needs to improve if only to build up a reserve balance.” She said the improvement in the stability of the ambulance fund is improving as “the whole city is monitoring it” and the fire department itself is “on board to reduce costs and expenses when necessary.”
The ambulance fund was a major financial burden on the city in early 2017, when it was operating in the red to the tune of about $11,000 a month, prompting the City Council to adopt in March of 2017 an increase in the ambulance utility fee of $3.31 effective April 1.
Councilman David Wilson Sr. objected to the increase, saying it was unfair to burden residents with the added expense. To that end, he proposed an amendment adding a sunset clause, which would roll back the increase at the end of 2018. That proposal was adopted.
At the Nov. 13 City Council meeting, an ordinance was presented to repeal the sunset clause. Wilson said he believed it should stand, but the rest of the council disagreed; Wilson was the only “nay” vote. Schmid said prior to the vote that the repeal of the sunset clause, which keeps the utility fee at the current rate of $19.23 monthly, that its repeal provides stability and keeps the city from having to further discuss additional rate increases.
Cemetery fund
The city’s cemetery fund has long been a sticking point in the city’s budget. Schmid told the council Nov. 13 that revenues collected from cemetery services do not come close to covering the operating expenses of the facility. However, because of reserve and endowment funds, she said “it’s OK” for the upcoming biennium.
“That said, the fund is depleting and not growing,” she said. “At some time we’re going to have to come up with a long-term plan.”
