MONROE - The city's Finance and Taxation Committee got a first look Thursday, June 7 at the city's projected capital funding needed for 2013.
City Administrator Phil Rath is recommending the city levy $750,250 in property taxes for capital expenses, about one-half percent less than the amount levied in 2012.
The $750,000, combined with $180,000 set aside in departmental capital accounts, still leaves the city short about $643,000 to meet the department heads' requests totaling $1.6 million for equipment, vehicles and construction next year.
Utilities - water, wastewater and storm water - operate on their own fees and their budgets are not included in the general tax levy.
Rath said the committee could decide to borrow $420,000 of the shortfall amount through bonds to cover one street reconstruction project on West 8th Street, west of Wisconsin 69. The city reconstructed the 8th and 9th Street corridor east of the highway last year.
Rath maintains that bonding is acceptable for large-cost projects that create infrastructure with long life spans. Street reconstruction costs an average of about $1.5 million per mile and results in the street's new life expectancy of 45 years.
Should the committee accept bonding for reconstructing West 8th Street, the city would be looking for $223,000 to cover the remaining gap in capital financing.
Last year, the city approved about $1.2 million for the 2012 capital budget, levied more than $754,000 of it and drew $427,000 from the city's fund balance to offset the difference.
The 2012 capital budget amount was the ending total, after the committee sliced some departments' capital requests to meet the needs of the operating budget - a move that has helped the city balance its budget plagued by rising prices, state-controlled levy increases and decreasing state aid in the past several years.
Rath said he would like to keep discussions of the capital budget separate from the operating budget this fall, and has moved setting the capital budget up in the budget process.
Setting the capital budget first "establishes what would remain for the operating budget and prevents there being cuts at the last budget minute to meet other demands," he said.
The recommendation to levy $750,000 is "just to get the discussion started," he added. The committee could decide over the next few meetings to set aside more or less.
Rath hopes to have the capital budget finished by the end of July.
To assist staff, committees and the council in their decisions and to improve budgeting of current and future capital needs, Rath has devised a five-year capital improvement plan.
"It's a way to get more information to (council members)," he said.
From the plan, Rath can produce reports that cross reference capital purchases and projects by year, priority, department and funding sources. He expects the usefulness of the format to improve in subsequent years as more data is included.
Department heads established the priority levels, as well as produced individual, detailed information sheets on each project - 170 in all over the next five years.
The 2013 list of city-wide capital improvement expenses includes projects as small as $150 for fourth-level priority computer software and as large as the wastewater treatment utility's major priority-one upgrade project worth more than $17 million.
The five-year plan, which Rath introduced earlier this year, is also expected to help the city save regularly for upcoming big-ticket items, such as replacing fire trucks, police cars, street sweepers and garbage trucks, instead of using the current method of borrowing funds through interest-bearing loans for major purchases. That is a turn-around in the city's philosophy on financing. The council would allocate a sum, proportional to the costs and life spans of the replacement equipment, in each annual budget.
The regularly scheduled meeting of the city's Finance and Taxation Committee is Tuesday, June 19.
City Administrator Phil Rath is recommending the city levy $750,250 in property taxes for capital expenses, about one-half percent less than the amount levied in 2012.
The $750,000, combined with $180,000 set aside in departmental capital accounts, still leaves the city short about $643,000 to meet the department heads' requests totaling $1.6 million for equipment, vehicles and construction next year.
Utilities - water, wastewater and storm water - operate on their own fees and their budgets are not included in the general tax levy.
Rath said the committee could decide to borrow $420,000 of the shortfall amount through bonds to cover one street reconstruction project on West 8th Street, west of Wisconsin 69. The city reconstructed the 8th and 9th Street corridor east of the highway last year.
Rath maintains that bonding is acceptable for large-cost projects that create infrastructure with long life spans. Street reconstruction costs an average of about $1.5 million per mile and results in the street's new life expectancy of 45 years.
Should the committee accept bonding for reconstructing West 8th Street, the city would be looking for $223,000 to cover the remaining gap in capital financing.
Last year, the city approved about $1.2 million for the 2012 capital budget, levied more than $754,000 of it and drew $427,000 from the city's fund balance to offset the difference.
The 2012 capital budget amount was the ending total, after the committee sliced some departments' capital requests to meet the needs of the operating budget - a move that has helped the city balance its budget plagued by rising prices, state-controlled levy increases and decreasing state aid in the past several years.
Rath said he would like to keep discussions of the capital budget separate from the operating budget this fall, and has moved setting the capital budget up in the budget process.
Setting the capital budget first "establishes what would remain for the operating budget and prevents there being cuts at the last budget minute to meet other demands," he said.
The recommendation to levy $750,000 is "just to get the discussion started," he added. The committee could decide over the next few meetings to set aside more or less.
Rath hopes to have the capital budget finished by the end of July.
To assist staff, committees and the council in their decisions and to improve budgeting of current and future capital needs, Rath has devised a five-year capital improvement plan.
"It's a way to get more information to (council members)," he said.
From the plan, Rath can produce reports that cross reference capital purchases and projects by year, priority, department and funding sources. He expects the usefulness of the format to improve in subsequent years as more data is included.
Department heads established the priority levels, as well as produced individual, detailed information sheets on each project - 170 in all over the next five years.
The 2013 list of city-wide capital improvement expenses includes projects as small as $150 for fourth-level priority computer software and as large as the wastewater treatment utility's major priority-one upgrade project worth more than $17 million.
The five-year plan, which Rath introduced earlier this year, is also expected to help the city save regularly for upcoming big-ticket items, such as replacing fire trucks, police cars, street sweepers and garbage trucks, instead of using the current method of borrowing funds through interest-bearing loans for major purchases. That is a turn-around in the city's philosophy on financing. The council would allocate a sum, proportional to the costs and life spans of the replacement equipment, in each annual budget.
The regularly scheduled meeting of the city's Finance and Taxation Committee is Tuesday, June 19.