Council finalizes budget with no tax increase
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By DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star
A neighborhood swimming pool, Meadow Heights, was spared for at least one more year.
A program for people with head injuries will continue at the Easterday Recreation Center, for now.
StarTran buses will continue to run throughout the day, rather than braking for three hours to save money.
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- The council approved a $135 million budget, which is a 2.3 percent increase over current spending.
- Although the mayor initially proposed a 1-cent property tax increase, he backed off that proposal, and the budget will not require a property tax increase. The tax rate on the city’s portion of your property tax bill (which only accounts for about 14 percent of the bill) will remain unchanged at 28.8 cents per $100 of property value.
- An estimated 52 city jobs out of a workforce of about 2,000 will be eliminated by the budget, although most will be absorbed by unfilled vacancies, retirements and reorganizations.
- A home stimulus program - designed to encourage people to buy new homes - will be studied.
- The low-income monthly discount bus program called Ride for Five will become Ride for $7.50 and other bus fares will increase. However, eligibility for the discount bus passes will be expanded.
- Responsibility for before- and after-school programs in the Community Learning Centers will largely shift to local nonprofit agencies, although the city will still provide funding.
- Bennett Martin Public Library will close at 6 p.m. beginning in September.
- The council voted to restore $34,000 to keep the Meadow Heights swimming pool, at 900 W. Avon Lane, open for at least one more year while searching for a private entity to take over the pool.
But the city will continue to run on a tight budget, with libraries closing earlier and parks continuing to be shaggy, under the budget approved by the Lincoln City Council on Wednesday.
The council made its final budget decisions for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which begins in September. The mayor and council came to an agreement that will leave the city property tax rate unchanged at 28.8 cents per $100 of property value.
The $135 million municipal budget approved Wednesday marks a 2.3 percent increase over current spending.
With sales tax revenue coming in at a less-than-robust pace, slowed growth in the property tax base and an aversion to increasing the city’s property tax rate, city officials squeezed budgets again to address a $6 million shortfall.
Early in the budgeting process, Mayor Chris Beutler went out on a limb and proposed a 1-cent property tax increase and pushed hard to get the council to stop resorting to one-time funding sources to plug budget gaps. But in the end, he backed away from a tax increase and agreed to use about $1 million in one-time money to balance the budget.
After the council formally adopts the budget later this month, Beutler said he will sign it. He said the council worked well with him this year to overcome yet another big budget deficit.
“With some luck, next year we may be over the budget hump,” he said, referring to his hope that the city can end annual budget shortfalls. “Certainly that was a disappointment that we had to use the one-time money.”
Beutler had mixed results in his first crack at writing a budget from scratch. Although it’s tough to roll out big initiatives when budgets are tight, Beutler came up with a few proposals, which got a lukewarm response from the City Council.
The mayor had proposed dipping into the city’s little-used $10 million Special Assessment Fund to create a $6.4 million economic development kitty, but the council said it would prefer to deal with that proposal separately from the budget, and will consider the proposal in coming weeks.
He also proposed a $610,000 housing stimulus program that the council is mulling but did not include in the budget. The council also declined to create Beutler’s proposed one-stop development shop, saying the idea needs more study.
Beutler expects the council to approve some version of his proposals.
“They’re not going to sit on the shelf very long because I won’t let them,” he said.
This year, Beutler took a new approach to budgeting called outcome-based budgeting — in which he solicited the public’s input, through surveys and community meetings, to prioritize funding of city services.
That process led him to leave public safety budgets largely unscathed and cut the StarTran bus system, for example. Although in the end, public outcry led the council to restore a considerable amount of bus funding, largely through fare increases.
The council put its finishing touches on the budget during a meeting Wednesday, where it voted to:
* Spend $100,000 to hire a fundraiser to raise money to maintain the city’s parks.
* Restore $34,000 to keep the Meadow Heights, 900 W. Avon Lane, swimming pool open for at least one more year while searching for a private entity to take over the pool.
* Add $22,000 to keep a head trauma program going at the Easterday Recreation Center at least through the end of the year.
Councilman Ken Svoboda gave Beutler -- whom he ran against for mayor last year -- credit for some “out-of-the-box thinking” this year. Even though the council has not yet embraced Beutler’s major initiatives, a variation of them could be approved in the coming weeks, he said.
“I think this was probably the most collaborative budget that I’ve worked on,” Svoboda said.
Councilman Jonathan Cook said the budget ended up a lot better than he expected about a week ago, and he’s pleased the council saw the need to restore bus funding.
Councilwoman Robin Eschliman said now she’d like to see the focus shift to the other taxing entities’ budgets.
“We are only 14 percent of the problem (property tax bill),” she said.
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
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Props to the City Council for continuing StarTran service. If we want to continue to grow as a city, we shouldn't stumble backwards to a Midwest town. Perhaps if ridership were promoted in some way it would increase. In my ten years living here, I've never seen it. And "promotion" doesn't mean "find promotion budget"; it doesn't require money. As anyone who grew up poor can relate, you have to be creative when you don't have the cash. While buses are great for those who can't afford to own a car, it's also great for those who choose to not own a car. "
The City continues to "rob Peter to pay Paul", it will catch up. The cost of services provided by the City are increasing as is everything else. Eventually, a tax increase will have to occur to maintain these services. The individual departments have cut and cut, to the detriment of their services. If you haven't felt the results yet, stand by. "
Props to the city council on making this work for now (although wow does lincoln need some new roads and a new expressway - and widening of critical arteries, 27th street, to 4 lanes). Now we just have to force LPS to cut it's budget by a solid 10-20%. "