Preparations for Village government’s next fiscal year budget continue, with another work-study session scheduled for May 1.

The new session, 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers across from Wells Fargo Bank, will focus on revenue projections as a follow-up to an earlier session that examined projected expenses.

Several villagers spoke up at the April 10 Village Council meeting to express concerns as the mayor and council begin deliberations on their FY2012-13 budget which must be submitted to the N.M. Department of Finance and Administration May 31.

Former Corrales Police Chief Mike Tarter cautioned councillors against cutting further from the police department’s budget in the coming fiscal year. “We’re going in the wrong direction,” Tarter said, by leaving authorized positions within the department unfilled.

The former police chief pointed out that the size of Corrales’ police force is now at the level it was when he was recruited here in 1990.

Other villagers urged the council to continue holding the line against spending increases. Among those were former Councillor Melanie Scholer and Scott Kominiak.

Scholer noted that projections of gross receipts tax revenues for the Village are always higher than what is actually received. “We need to start scaling back if we’re consistently over-estimating our gross receipts tax collections,” she warned.

“Borrowing up front to balance the budget is actually killing our savings,” Scholer said.

Kominiak criticized “huge and unrealistic projected revenues. You need to figure out what’s really going to be there before you decide how to spend it.”

Mayor Phil Gasteyer promised more opportunities for public comment on the preliminary budget at the May 8 and May 22 council meetings.

Village Finance Officer Terri Gray provided a summary of projected revenues and expenditures from the general fund during the fiscal year that will start July 1. Revenues are shown as $3, 551,962 while total expenditures from the general fund tallied $3,590,279, or  a deficit of $38,317 at this early stage in setting the preliminary budget.

As the budget process began, Gasteyer laid out decisions to be made.

“Our budgeting for the current fiscal year is pretty much on target,” the mayor pointed out. “With three-fourths of the year finished, our general fund revenues are at 76 percent, slightly above, while our expenditures are 67 percent, slightly below, what was projected last summer.

“Do we need to restore staffing for police? With the State providing little or no outlays,  should we be setting aside revenues for a capital fund?

“Are library services a priority?  How important is it to build more cash reserves?”

The mayor noted that the Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority has provided money to re-develop Salce Park, but that will require additional Village funds to carry out.

And there are other demands on municipal government’s scant resources, he said. “At a recent meeting, we talked about providing a match for Corrales Future Fund donations to acquire a new ambulance. And should we embark on a tree cultivation and education program” following intense interest last year over removal of a landmark tree at the Old Church?

Perhaps more importantly, he pointed out, “With the sewer becoming operational later this year, we need to budget for maintenance services.

“As mayor, I invite Corraleños to share their thoughts and expectations as we approach our budget decision-making in May.”

Going into the April 2 work-study session with his municipal government department heads, Gasteyer asked them to respond to two questions: If you had 10 percent more money in your department’s budget, how would you use it? and if you had 10 percent less money in next year’s budget, what would you eliminate?

The biggest components of Village government’s general fund revenue stream are gross receipts taxes (GRT, sales tax) and property taxes. A general economic recession in recent years has  hit municipal government’s income from the tax on the sale or goods and services, but the effects have been less severe that might have been anticipated.

Corrales’ income from GRT in July 2009, for example was $188,872.82. That dropped  to $126,658.10 the following July. Then in July of FY2010-11, it tanked further to $114,297.61. But it  headed back up in the current fiscal year, to $145,321.98.

(Corrales’ fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.)

As another example month, over the same four-year period (FY 2008-09 to FY2011-12) Corrales’ income from GRT in February went from $196,781.26 to $183,819.94 and on down to $161,357,38 —and then rebounded to $225,176.59 in the current fiscal year.

Corrales’ current budget has projected GRT revenues of $1,824,376.

At the start of the budget process for FY2012-13, Village Finance Officer Terri Gray is projecting total revenues from all sources (GRT, property tax, business licenses, franchise taxes, recurring state funds, court fines, etc.) of $3,551,962. 

Of that projected income for the fiscal year that will start July 1, various GRT streams are expected to contribute $1,824,376, while property tax accounts for $938,586.