Council Reviews 2013 Budget
Tuesday, April 03 2012
Budget Breakdown
Proposed operating expenditures for 2013 are $24.2 million. Total expenditures and revenues for the city are projected at $33 million.
The city generates half of its revenue from fisheries taxes and another 20 percent from sales tax. Property tax, investments and other revenue account for the remainder.
At $5.7 million Public Works has the largest operating budget of any city department.
Public Safety has the largest personnel budget of any city department at $4.2 million.
Where does all the money go? Personnel – 38%, Capital Projects - 22%, Goods and Services 17%, School Support 13%, Other – 10%
The Carl E. Moses Small Boat Harbor has generated $121,041 in docking fees since it opened in December.
So far this year the city has spent $47,000 on electricity for its new LED streetlights.
Administration is budgeting for a new car this year. City Manager Chris Hladick’s justification: “When you have the Speaker of the House in the car, it’d be nice not to have to go around back and open the door to let him out.”
City Council met Monday night to review the budget for fiscal year 2013. Total proposed operating expenditures are $24.2 million. That represents a 4.6 percent increase over last year.
Most departments kept proposed budget increases below 3 percent, in keeping with fiscal goals set by Council. The major exception was the planning department, which proposed a 268 percent increase in non-personnel operating expenses. Director Erin Reinders said during the meeting that with Shell and potentially other oil companies setting up shop in Unalaska, there will be increased development pressure. She said dealing with that will require more resources. Reinders budgeted $200,000 for land use planning under a line item titled “engineering and architecture services”. The other large line item in the planning budget was for surveying services, which Reinders said would be used to map the city’s tidelands.
Facilities maintenance also proposed a large budget increase. Public Works director Nancy Peterson said there are quite a few maintenance projects slated for the coming year, including repainting City Hall and fixing the sidewalk outside the library.
Meanwhile, several of the city’s enterprise funds are projecting increases in net revenue for the coming year, including ports and the electric and water utilities. Interim ports director Jamie Sunderland said that part of the increase in ports comes from heavier traffic at the Unalaska Marine Center dock.
“What we have is a lot of these catcher-processors tying up in between Horizon, Maersk, fuel barges and stuff. So, we’re filling those gaps where you would have normally seen some of UMC vacant.”
Sunderland also said that the recently opened Carl E Moses small boat harbor is bringing in additional revenue, although he cautioned against reading too much into the projections, since the harbor has only been open for a few months.
Council will meet again at 6pm Tuesday night to go over the capital budget and community support funding. That meeting is expected to last two hours.
