(June 9, 2016) In two separate moves during Monday’s regular City Council meeting, town officials passed both the first reading of the Pocomoke City 2017 budget and an emergency resolution establishing the tax rates for the coming fiscal year.
Because Worcester County government was required to adopt its own budget the next morning, and the county’s budget depends, to a certain extent, on numbers from each municipality including Pocomoke City, the resolution was required.
Emergency resolutions can be enacted immediately, while the budget is an ordinance requiring two readings and a public hearing before it can be acted upon.
On Monday, the council passed the first reading and public hearing on the $8 million budget. Though present, no one in the audience commented on the plan. The ordinance is expected to be ratified during the June 20 meeting.
This budget also does not include funding for any capital projects, such as construction or augmentation of existing facilities. Those expenditures are being handled in a different document, City Manager/City Attorney Ernie Crofoot said, and is reliant on finding outside sources to finance the projects.
Some of those projects, however, are already starting to take shape. The council approved a contract with a vendor to perform a hydrodynamic study of the town’s water system to help identify possible sources of debris entering the system, particularly in the Pocomoke Heights area.
Residents have also intermittently reported strong odors emanating from their water supplies. The vendor, George, Miles and Burr LLC in Salisbury, will also produce a map of the entire system.
The council also approved a suggestion by Crofoot to begin negotiations with the company that designed the municipality’s wastewater treatment plant to produce a new curtain, as the repair to the existing curtain didn’t hold. Crofoot said this project would cost about $52,000.
The income to pay for these projects, already approved in theory by the council, will come from a line of credit and will be repaid through a bond issue later in the year. The council approved a resolute pave the way for this process to proceed.
The spending plan counts revenue and expenses for three funds: the general fund and two enterprise funds, the ambulance service and water/sewer services.
General fund revenue is about $5 million, about half of that in tax revenue from various sources and fees as well as about $207,000 in surplus funds from previous years.
The ambulance service is expected to bring in about $1 million next fiscal year in county support funds, insurance claims and a transfer from the general fund. The water/sewer fund totals about $2 million, with user fees contributing the largest share.
General fund expenses are largely in the domains of public safety and maintenance, including about $1.6 million total for fire and police services and training. City employee benefits cost about $900,000 annually.
Ambulance personnel salaries, benefits and general expenses make up the lion’s share of its nearly $1 million in expenditures next year. Water and sewer services make up the bulk of the nearly $2 million expenditure expected here. Employee benefits and loan payments also contribute significantly to the expenditures.
“If the money isn’t there, the big ticket items won’t be purchased,” Crofoot said of capital expenditures. “We’re avoiding a structural deficit in the budget.”
That can be trickier than it seems.
“Departments submit their requirements, but it’s always more than revenues. There’s a lot of give and take before it makes it to council,” Crofoot said. “The primary thing is to make sure everyone pays the same, so we had to keep expenditures in line with the revenues.”
Because Worcester County government was required to adopt its own budget the next morning, and the county’s budget depends, to a certain extent, on numbers from each municipality including Pocomoke City, the resolution was required.
Emergency resolutions can be enacted immediately, while the budget is an ordinance requiring two readings and a public hearing before it can be acted upon.
On Monday, the council passed the first reading and public hearing on the $8 million budget. Though present, no one in the audience commented on the plan. The ordinance is expected to be ratified during the June 20 meeting.
This budget also does not include funding for any capital projects, such as construction or augmentation of existing facilities. Those expenditures are being handled in a different document, City Manager/City Attorney Ernie Crofoot said, and is reliant on finding outside sources to finance the projects.
Some of those projects, however, are already starting to take shape. The council approved a contract with a vendor to perform a hydrodynamic study of the town’s water system to help identify possible sources of debris entering the system, particularly in the Pocomoke Heights area.
Residents have also intermittently reported strong odors emanating from their water supplies. The vendor, George, Miles and Burr LLC in Salisbury, will also produce a map of the entire system.
The council also approved a suggestion by Crofoot to begin negotiations with the company that designed the municipality’s wastewater treatment plant to produce a new curtain, as the repair to the existing curtain didn’t hold. Crofoot said this project would cost about $52,000.
The income to pay for these projects, already approved in theory by the council, will come from a line of credit and will be repaid through a bond issue later in the year. The council approved a resolute pave the way for this process to proceed.
The spending plan counts revenue and expenses for three funds: the general fund and two enterprise funds, the ambulance service and water/sewer services.
General fund revenue is about $5 million, about half of that in tax revenue from various sources and fees as well as about $207,000 in surplus funds from previous years.
The ambulance service is expected to bring in about $1 million next fiscal year in county support funds, insurance claims and a transfer from the general fund. The water/sewer fund totals about $2 million, with user fees contributing the largest share.
General fund expenses are largely in the domains of public safety and maintenance, including about $1.6 million total for fire and police services and training. City employee benefits cost about $900,000 annually.
Ambulance personnel salaries, benefits and general expenses make up the lion’s share of its nearly $1 million in expenditures next year. Water and sewer services make up the bulk of the nearly $2 million expenditure expected here. Employee benefits and loan payments also contribute significantly to the expenditures.
“If the money isn’t there, the big ticket items won’t be purchased,” Crofoot said of capital expenditures. “We’re avoiding a structural deficit in the budget.”
That can be trickier than it seems.
“Departments submit their requirements, but it’s always more than revenues. There’s a lot of give and take before it makes it to council,” Crofoot said. “The primary thing is to make sure everyone pays the same, so we had to keep expenditures in line with the revenues.”