The new budget for Winder’s upcoming fiscal year includes several rate and fee increases.
In addition to higher water and sewer rates announced last week, the FY2011 budget includes a $1 “per cart” monthly fee increase for garbage service and a new “environmental protection services” fee.
At a public input meeting Monday about the new budget, finance director Leslie Henderson said the new fee would cover the cost of implementing state-mandated environmental programs in the city.
The costs of the programs during FY2011 is budgeted at $760,000.
The environmental fee for each property, which will show up in December on property tax bills, has not been set. It will be based on the amount of “impervious” surface, which is a structure or material that creates stormwater runoff by preventing the ground’s absorption of water.
Jennifer Toler, an environmental protection services contractor with H.S. Feldman Inc., said the fees are likely to range from $30-60 annually, depending on the amount of impervious surface on a property.
The city’s Geographic Information Services Department is working with a Norcross company to develop an inventory of impervious surfaces throughout the city.
Henderson said the new fee would cover not only the FY2011 operational expenses of the new programs, but also a portion of the FY2010 costs incurred by the city in establishing the environmental programs when no environmental fee was in place.
The budget also leaves open the possibility of increases in the insurance premium tax and the excise taxes for beer, liquor and wine. The city added an excise tax for mixed drinks in 2009.
PUBLIC INPUT SESSION
Though councilman Bob Dixon said at Monday’s meeting that he had been inundated with phone calls about the higher water and sewer rates, only three members of the public attended the budget session.
On the other hand, all of the city’s department managers attended, as did Dixon, councilman Ridley Parrish, and Mayor Chip Thompson, who sat in the audience.
With operational spending remaining close to current levels, and no additional staff to be hired, each manager was asked instead to present his department’s capital requests.
Most acknowledged that that those requests constitute a “wish list” to be fulfilled only if additional revenues are generated through grants, additional debt or other sources.
One exception is the Water and Sewer Fund, which will reinvest in its infrastructure $1 million or more in new revenues from the FY2011 rate hikes that begin Oct. 1. The city council earlier this month designated all of that additional revenue to maintenance and upgrading of the infrastructure.
BUDGET OVERVIEW
The city’s new operating budget projects $30 million in revenues and almost $30 million in expenditures during the upcoming fiscal year from July 1 through June 30, 2011.
The single largest source of revenue is $23.7 million in charges for primarily utility services. The second largest source of funding for the budget is about $3.9 million in taxes.
The capital budget calls for another $16.6 million in expenditures. However, Henderson said this week that while the FY2010 budget called for $13.7 million in capital expenditures, the city as of April 30 had spent only $1 million of that.
“We look at capital outlay on a case-by-case (basis) for priority when funds are available,” she said.
One of the budget’s highlights is a reduction in insurance costs. The budget also includes no salary increases.
The budget is available for review weekdays at City Hall and online at www.cityofwinder.com.
The one public hearing before the Winder City Council is scheduled for 6 p.m. May 27.
The city council is scheduled to adopt the spending plan at its regular business meeting the first Tuesday in June.
