City commission presented with flat budget

Fort Scott City Commissioners on Tuesday got a look at the proposed 2016 city budget which once again contains a plan by city officials to hold the mill levy flat.

Commissioners heard a presentation on the budget from Director of Finance Jon Garrison during a budget work session prior to the commission's regular meeting. Garrison hit on some highlights of the proposed budget, which includes an overall mill levy of 49.189 mills, the same figure that was in the 2015 budget. Last year, city officials also chose to keep a stable mill levy.

Assessed valuations are down this year from $42.7 million in 2015 to $42.5 million in the proposed 2016 budget. Garrison said the city will actually levy less money from taxpayers this year than last year. The proposed 2016 budget includes about $2.1 million in total taxes levied.

"It's a balanced budget," Garrison said. "Assessed valuation is down a little bit ... we're levying less dollars than last year."

Other components of the proposed new budget are a 3-percent increase in wages for city employees and $100,000 in additional money for the street department for road work next year. The budget also includes decreases in KPERS which is down from 10.4 percent to 10.1 percent resulting in a savings of $7,066 for the city and a decrease in the Kansas Police and Fire retirement system from 27.1 percent to 25.2 percent, resulting in a savings of $27,822. There is also a budgeted 3-percent "nominal" increase in utility rates, according to Garrison.

Garrison said overall revenues are stable but conservative revenue estimates show zero growth in the areas of sales tax, franchise tax, water revenues and storm water revenues. Wastewater revenues are estimated to be up 6.7 percent in the new budget.

According to Garrison, estimates for the transient guest tax show that fund to be up 66 percent from 2014 which will give the city extra money for tourism purposes.

"The hotels are doing well and we're seeing the benefit of that," he said.

The proposed 2016 budget shows $11.8 million in projected revenues and $15.3 million in projected expenses.

"We've lost a lot of revenue sources but we've been frugal and still have money for projects and services," Garrison said. "We're trying to move the city forward with this budget."