FeedsCash flow is concern for Belleville
Cash flow is an issue for the City of Belleville, according to officials.
“The budget is adopted on a departmental basis so the subtotals are the level you’re adopting the budget on,” said Carl Johnson of Plante & Moran, the independent auditors employed by the city. “The fund balance is very little.”
At the budget review sessions recently, the proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 showed about $66,000 in the general fund. The summary of funds include: $98,945 for the major street fund, $65,543 for the local street fund, $51 for the building fund, $25,704 in the budget stabilization fund, $18,783 in the police forfeiture fund, $223,661 in the cemetery perpetual care fund and $209,026 in the total special revenue fund.
The public improvement fund has about $145,000 to spend because of the federal park grant, according to Johnson.
“Until the city resolves the water and sewer issue, the cash flow issue will remain,” he said.
Johnson also explained to officials where the sources of revenue come from: property taxes, state-shared revenue and other revenue. Property tax revenue is heavily dependent on personal property, which tends to depreciate and the significant state-shared revenue cuts continue to be a challenge, too, he said.
Challenges for expenditures are the increase in service demand, collective bargaining agreements, rising health care costs and the sewer and capital needs improvements.
“We’re struggling annually to break even. We need to push the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) to spend and re-invest back into the community,” said Johnson. “Your DDA is doing that with things like purchasing a fire truck and the streetscape project.”
Fire Chief Darwin Loyer said he has many things to fill the ‘wish list’, like replacing a 25-year-old fire engine and getting a new brush truck for the department.
“We’re patching things together here because these are things that were on the plans, but got tossed and fell by the wayside,” he said.
The third budget study session will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. A public hearing for the budget will then be called at the meeting, which follows at 7:30 p.m., according to Clerk/Treasurer Diana Kollmeyer, who is also acting city manager.
