fbpx

Kalispell Budget Outlook Stabilizing

By Beacon Staff

After a work session Monday night looking at updated budget numbers, Kalispell City Council members congratulated the staff on a financial situation that, while not ideal, appears to be stabilizing. Kalispell’s cash reserve remains low for a city of its size, but Finance Director Amy Robertson reported a reserve carryover from the fiscal year ending June 30 of roughly $226,000. That’s estimated to hold steady through the end of the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

“You’ve done a hell of a job,” Councilman Hank Olson said. “I’m pretty proud of people that have created $226,000 in reserves because we were broke last November.”

Despite the budget’s prominence as the primary issue facing Kalispell city officials, no one in the public offered any feedback at the July 20 hearing on the budget, so the work session, at which no formal votes are allowed, was a chance for Robertson to update the council on the budget in light of the recent city manager hiring and other changes.

The new total budget number for the year beginning July 1 is $46,755,825, up from a previous estimate of $45.8 million. In a July 23 memo to council, Finance Director Amy Robertson and Interim City manager Myrt Webb note that the $987,649 increase is not new spending but a carryover from the previous fiscal year for grants and projects. The Fire Grants budget alone, the memo notes, has a $915,879 grant carryover for a new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.

The general fund increases slightly by $7,258 to $9,108,115. Tax collections are down $80,000 from what was billed, the memo states, and those funds tend to come in at a later date. City departments managed to scrape together a carryover of $226,000 for the general fund. The Ambulance Fund remains about $25,000 in the red, though that is likely to be reimbursed through a Medicare check for roughly that amount. Any shortfalls from the Ambulance Fund will require moving the salaries of firefighters paid through that fund back into the general Fire Department.

The current general fund total is lower than for fiscal year 2008-2009, which was $10,089,074. That’s mainly because the Parks and Recreation Department was split off into its own enterprise fund, to shield it from some of the cuts it was suffering to staff and programs as part of the general fund.

With the construction slowdown, the Building Department revenues are down. Planning Director Tom Jentz’s salary, which was previously split 50-50 between the Building and Planning Department is moving to a budget where the Planning Department accounts for 75 percent of his salary – which more accurately reflects his time. Councilman Bob Hafferman expressed concern that the salary shift would put a $26,000 hit in the general fund, and that the Building Department still can’t sustain itself properly.

But overall, council members seemed pleased with what they heard.

“The public needs to know that the city staff has done a Herculean job of reducing the city budget,” Councilman Jim Atkinson said. “It needs to be known that the city is acting responsibly, as responsibly as homeowners are acting in their own budgets and I think these numbers reflect that.”