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Revenues for Village Government Down $300,000 |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 |
Anticipating a drop in revenues to run Village government due to the
national and regional recession, Mayor Phil Gasteyer has for months
been trimming expenditures.
“We think we are down around $300,000 from where we should be on what’s
basically a $4 million general fund budget,” Gasteyer said January 30.
“The question remains whether we should make mid-year [mid fiscal year]
changes at this point in terms of our spending, which is difficult to
do because about 60 to 65 percent of our general fund spending relates
to salaried positions and the associated employee benefits that go with
them.”
Gasteyer estimated that he has saved up to $250,000 since the fiscal
year began July 1, 2009 by not hiring to fill staff vacancies.
Those vacancies are in the Planning and Zoning Office, the police department and in recycling.
The Village Council delved into the budget in an hour-long work-study
session prior to its regular meeting January 12. That work-study
session will be resume before the next regular council meeting February
9, starting at 5:30 p.m.
In an interview with Corrales Comment January 30, the mayor explained
the situation this way. “We’re concerned about our revenues, and we’re
going to have to be very cautious about how we manage our finances for
the remainder of the fiscal year based on the actual numbers we have in
front of us up through the month of January which is 59 percent of the
fiscal year.
“The greatest short-fall on the revenue side is in our gross receipts
tax revenues,” he continued. “They have been very erratic over the past
few years, so it was a difficult task to project what they should be in
our budget for this fiscal year, but they do seem to be running about
11 percent below what we had anticipated” when the municipal budget was
approved last June.
“But we’ve also been prudent in our expenditures, so we’ve managed to
keep our expenditures about 6 percent what we had anticipated.
“However, last May the council, which has the purse strings authority, chose to project more expenses than they did revenues.”
Three of the five vacant positions that have not been filled as the
administration reined in spending are in the police department. “There
are three unfilled slots in the police department, one unfilled spot in
planning and zoning and the recycling technician who found a better job
and left in October, and the fire department took over operation of the
recycling activity.
“We have cut out various training like Municipal League conferences and travel that isn’t covered in some other way.”
The reduction in staffing is straining remaining personnel, the mayor
noted. “Over a longer time frame, it reduces our ability to serve the
public.
“People are very happy with the fact that Corrales has such a good
record as the safest municipality in the state. That’s in part because
we have a police force that’s normally with 18 officers and
supervisors. Cutting back to 15 is not something we want to do.”
As far as staff in the P&Z office, he said, “We certainly have more
than enough activity for planning and zoning staff —the building
inspector and the planning and zoning administrator— but this unfilled
position does coincide with a reduction in construction activity,
subdivisions and site plan reviews” which makes it easier to get by
with one less staffer.
Gasteyer said he can’t tell exactly which sectors of the local economy
are causing the biggest drop in gross receipts taxes. He thinks
Corrales’ restaurants are generating taxes. “Perea’s seems to be doing
fine, the new restaurant [Oasis Cafe] seems to have people all the time
and Village Pizza is no doubt our big performer.”
He said some Corrales business saw a big drop in sales during the holidays while others had their best December ever.
Property taxes are also down. “We are puzzled by why there is such a
drop in property taxes. Why should the recent tax distribution period
be $60,000 less than last year?” he asked. “Almost everybody in the
village has had that three percent bump in their assessment.”
He said that reduction seems to be between $50,000 and $100,000, or a 10 percent drop. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
As the revenue income continues to sag, the mayor said, villagers may
experience a deterioration in service to the public. “I guess you might
see that in response time when you call the Planning and Zoning Office,
or whether or no the broken stop signs gets replaced by the Public
Works Department, or the library is able to upgrade and maintain their
computers, or what you can ask the Village Engineer or the Village
Attorney to give you professional advice on.
“For continuity sake, you want to hang onto your staff,” he added.
“These are relatively low-pay jobs to start with, and this year we
basically only had an across-the-board supplement of $50 a pay period,
whereas you’d like to at least have a cost-of-living adjustment and
also be able to give some reward for performances and experience.
“So there’s a concern about retaining our experienced personnel.”
Gasteyer said other municipalities are experiencing the same problems.
As Village officials were checking how fast they were running
through their budget with 59 percent of the fiscal year behind
them, they had actually received $1,035,452 in gross receipts tax
compared to $2,173,000 which had been projected for the full fiscal
year.
Property taxes had been projected at $665,108 whereas just $447,035 had
come in. Licences and fees had been projected to bring in $492,826 for
the full year whereas $254,266 had come in at the 59 percent mark.
Property taxes distributed in January 2010 were $376,626.53, down
considerably from the $421,599.89 that were paid to the Village in
January 2009.
The mayor said it is not clear why that would drop since property tax
rates had gone up, and even if property owners protest their
assessments, they are supposed to pay and reclaim their money if and
when the protest is successful. |
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