Similar to many councils and entities right now, the Price City Council tackled budget-related topics during its meeting last week.
Beginning, council members discussed the possible adoption of the Certified Tax Rate for 2022 of the Price Municipal Corporation. Lisa Richens explained that the Carbon County Clerk/Auditor sets the tax rate. The city will receive at least as much revenue as last year, plus growth. There is no intention to raise taxes in the upcoming year.
The rate set by the county clerk/auditor is .00413 and the proposed tax rate value went up, which is the reason for the decrease. Because of that change, the budgeted revenue for the upcoming year is nearly $31,000,000.
With this in mind, a public hearing was opened to receive comment on the year-end budget revision for fiscal year 2021-22. Richens explained that this revision is to see how the budget will look at the year-end and to adjust anything that might have come up.
Addressing the different funds, Richens stated that the general fund actually decreased by over $600,000. Revenues and taxes increased by $67,000 while licenses and permits increased by $15,000. Richens stated that as interest rates are going up, there will be an interest increase. However, the biggest decrease is the transfer from the electric fund to balance out the electric and general funds.
There was also about $129,000 worth of ZAP tax that was not used and will transfer into the next fiscal year. Richens then shared that what really hit this year was the cost of heating the pool. In one year, the city saw over $40,000 in increases for the heating. Richens explained that in the past, it had remained stable.
Price City Mayor Mike Kourianos said that natural gas, gas at the pump and electricity is a huge cost for Price City, but are needed services, just as the pool is needed. “We have to supply it and support it,” said the mayor.
Next, a public hearing was hosted for the Enterprise Fund transfer, which was a proposed transfer from the electric fund to the general fund. Richens explained that the final budget transfer out of the electric to the general fund is $1,828,140 and she outlined the reasoning behind this transfer with a presentation.
For this hearing, a couple of citizens were present and asked interested questions on the reason and function of the transfer. It was commented by city officials that it was a nice change to have citizens present and interested. Richens outlined historic transfers for these two funds, which has never gone over 34%. This year, it is sitting at a 24% transfer amount.
Next, the council tackled a public hearing for the tentative 2022-23 fiscal year budget. The budget is sitting at $30,425,573. Of that, 47.4 million is wages and benefits, $5.1 million is capital projects, and $17.9 is operating and maintenance expenses. One of the projects included in next year’s budget is spending approximately $800,000 of county highway tax, which is a restricted funding for roads, curb, gutter and sidewalks. The city has been saving these funds in order to perform a large road resurfacing project through about 25 blocks in the city.
Miles Nelson explained that this process is similar to a chip seal but has an extra layer on top that seals it in. This was completed a couple of years ago on 4th East and it was stated that, though it takes time to save the money, there is a need to be sealing up the roads.
“There’s a lot of little things that we’re trying to balance and do, and our crews are rising to the occasion,” said Mayor Kourianos.
All of the budget revisions, transfers and the fiscal year 2022-23 budget were approved by the council.