With the beginning of the new fiscal year upon them, the East Carbon City Council hosted three public hearings during its meeting on Tuesday evening.
The first hearing was regarding re-opening the 2021-22 budget. Mayor David Avery explained that the city’s financial advisor and attorney were both present for the hearings. Financial advisor Gary Huntington explained that as part of the community center repair, they had just received approval for more repairs. With that, there was a need to increase the revenue from the insurance company and then pay that bill.
The city was also planning on spending some of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds before the end of the fiscal year, though they will not be able to receive what is needed before the beginning of July. This means the plan to spend the ARPA funds will need to be reflected in the upcoming fiscal year instead. It was explained that they wished to make it clear that the changes needed to be made. With no public comment on this, the first hearing was closed.
The second hearing, regarding the enterprise fund transfer, was then opened. The 2022-23 budget contains transfers from the Water Fund to the General Fund of not more than $281,180. This transfer represents approximately 15.43% of the total Water Fund expenditures.
This was introduced to the tentative budget back in May, giving the public two months to review it and speak with the mayor and council on the transfer. It was explained that the debts for the water fund are getting paid by the tipping fees from the landfill, allowing city officials to move the extra funds to the general fund to pay for parks, police, fire, streets and other services. A brief discussion was hosted with one citizen before this hearing was closed.
Finally, the public hearing for the proposed 2022-23 budget was opened. Mayor Avery remarked that most reported diligently on needs, though there was a request during the hearing from one councilman to have more funds allocated for weed control in the parks and cemetery. He stated that if they are not controlled, they will lose a lot of grass.
The financial advisor also explained that there will be some carry over monies that were received in the current year but not yet spent, such as the ARPA money and grant funding. He acknowledged that this will be an interesting year, made difficult with inflation and not knowing when it will end. He suspects that they will be visiting the budget as least quarterly, if not more, to ensure that expenses will not exceed revenues.
The total expected revenue in the general fund is approximately $2,469,000, with the aforementioned carry-overs. A number of citizens had questions for the council regarding the clinic, fuel and the like. Mayor Avery then thanked the council, the financial advisor and the city attorney for getting them through another budget process.