Budget Preparations – Mayor and Council are hard at work on FY2015 budget. Lots of needs and limited funds. Mayor and Council are struggling to keep
and/or increase the level of services to the community while not raising
taxes. This is a very hard task to
accomplish when the needs are so great.
Some of the
proposals on the table include, not hiring an assistant City manager, hiring an
assistant City manager with 60% economic responsibilities and 40% management
responsibilities; hiring an assistant City manager with responsibilities for
managing code enforcement (certification in code enforcement required); hiring
an economic development specialist to concentrate on development of the
downtown area, and raising taxes to fund that position. There is also discussion on the table about
raising taxes to generate much needed revenue, and to limit the amount of money
that might be used out of the contingency fund to balance the budget and come
up with the funds to cover some of the stated needs. No final decisions have
been reached, and further discussion is scheduled for the next work session,
May 6, 2014.
The Constant Yield
Tax Rate hearing was held on Tuesday, April 22, 2014. No one from the general public attended. The Constant Yield Tax Rate for 2015 $0.86. The constant yield tax rate is the tax rate
that a jurisdiction would have to impose in order to obtain the same amount of property tax revenue in fiscal year 2015
as it received in fiscal year 2014. If a jurisdiction plans to set a tax
rate higher than the constant yield rate, the jurisdiction must advertise the
tax increase and hold a public hearing before setting the tax rate for fiscal
2015. Municipalities are exempt from these requirements if maintaining the same
tax rate would raise less than $25,000 more revenue in fiscal 2015 than in
fiscal 2014. This last sentence does not apply to Mount Rainier.
|
|
7/1/2014
|
7/1/2014
|
7/1/2014
|
7/1/2015
|
7/1/2014
|
|
Jurisdiction
|
Net Assessable Real
Property Base
|
Tax Rate
|
Potential Revenue
|
Net Assessable Real
Property Base
|
CYTR
|
|
Mount Rainier
|
337,420,516
|
x 0.86 =
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2,901,816 ÷
|
340,586,039
|
= 0.852
|
The City is
facing the same crisis that all of you are facing with the rising cost of oil,
gasoline, electric, health care, retirement, and general maintenance and upkeep. We are striving to become more energy
efficient. We are going green when we
can, and we are pushing composing and recycling as major goals that residents
can help us achieve. (NOTE: If you need a composting bin, please contact
Public Works. The first batch went
quickly, and a new order has been placed.)
These rising costs are also going to impact our budget, and our ability
to respond quickly and efficiently to the needs of our City.
I invite you to take a moment to get a copy
of our current budget, to really see what your mayor and council is working
with to efficiently and effectively run our City. Let
your Ward representative hear from you and your concerns regarding this year’s
budget, tax cuts, tax raises or whatever else you have on your mind. The window of opportunity will soon be gone,
and the new budget will be implemented on July 1, 2014. At this juncture, the Mayor is opposed to
raising taxes to create an economic development specialist or to delete the
assistant manager position that has functioned as assistant manager, economic
development and overseer for code enforcement and other activities in the City,
including road construction, emergencies and other duties as required to meet
the needs of the City.
On that note, I
am taking this opportunity to thank Mr. Michael Jackson for all of the work
that he provided to the City as Assistant Manager for the past six or more
years. Over those years, he wrote
grants, served as the City’s IT person, website developer, provided oversight
for code enforcement, editor of the City’s Newsletter, and a host of other job
functions that were assigned from time to time.
Michael landed a wonderful job at the Smithsonian, and started working
there last week. He will be missed, and
no matter what the budget decision is, he cannot be replaced. Thank you Michael for your hard work and
dedication to Mount Rainier.
