manitou springs city council regular meeting agenda city council

Jack Benson, City Administrator
606 Manitou Avenue
Manitou Springs, Colorado 80829
From the desk of:
Direct: 719-685-2560
Fax: 719-685-5233
E-mail: jbenson@comsgov.com
Website:
www.manitouspringsgov.com
Memorandum
To:
From:
Marc Snyder, Mayor
Manitou Springs City Council
Jack Benson, City Administrator
Rebecca Davis, Finance Director
Date: December 4, 2012
Re:
FY2013 Budget Proposal, First Reading
As required by the City’s Home Rule Charter, enclosed is our fiscal plan for FY2013. This plan is a culmination of
several work sessions and a daylong retreat with Council to workout spending requests and fiscal strategies. With a
successful election, the City has been able to address our less than adequate General Fund reserve balance, begin a
phased adjustment to our lagging compensation expenses, particularly in Public safety, and dedicates some monies to
start implementing the city’s parking program.
As was highlighted in our preliminary budget plan, this budget came on the heels of what continues to be a very difficult
2012 sale tax season. While the national economy has seen some slow recovery over the past year, our local
economy took a significant hit with the Waldo Canyon Wildfire and the lingering threat of post-fire, flash flooding. All our
tourism based taxing revenues declined after the fire and recovery to expected trends, as of this writing, have yet to be
seen. Given the lingering doubts on how this event will impact city revenues over the next several years, the city’s
FY2013 budget is taking a very conservative approach on revenues and limiting spending to the FY2012 budget levels.
New spending requests have been addressed in the context of Council’s fiscal policy regarding reserves and strategic
goals they would like to address in the coming year. All other discretionary spending requests have either been
pushed out to future years or denied (see Exhibit A). The priority items addressed in this plan include the following:
1.Maintain fiscal solvency on all funds.
2.Continue incremental Improvement to the General Fund’s Undesignated Reserves.
3.Adjust the city’s public safety compensation plan through a phase-in approach.
4.Accommodate a 2% cost of living adjustment to the balance of the city’s compensation plan.
5.Set-aside stimulus monies to help with implementing the city’s parking program.
6. Adjust the Storm Drainage Enterprise Rate to eliminate long-run accruing deficits.
Budget Summary
Revenue/Expense Summary – All Funds. The City’s FY2013 budget, for all funds, is projected at $8,188,282 and
$8,409,387 for revenues and expenses, respectively. In terms of expenses, this represents a 30.69 percent decrease
(-3,723,051) over FY2012 final amended totals. Most of the reductions in spending are attributable to large capital
projects being completed (Downtown Revitalization), open space acquisition efforts being completed, and debt service
being retired.
1