From the City of Greensboro:
GREENSBORO, NC (May 21, 2013)
– During tonight’s City Council meeting, City Manager Denise Turner
Roth presented a $459 million recommended budget for fiscal year
2013-14. The recommended budget includes approximately $4.3 million in
budget reductions.
According
to Roth, the City’s budget development approach focused on making
reductions and enhancements with an eye on this and future year’s
budgets. “When the budget process kicked off in the fall of 2012, I
challenged departments to look for ways the City could make long-term
reductions or fee changes without sacrificing the core commitments we
maintain as a governmental organization and service provider,” says
Roth. “As an organization, we also explored ways to streamline processes
and reduce costs to ensure that we were making decisions that would
benefit our budget development in years to come. This process has
produced a proposed budget that will continue to advance the
organization and ensure fiscal stability in the future.”
Following
the City Council’s continued desire to limit the budget impact on
residents, no tax rate increase is proposed. However, to offset future
regulatory issues, and water and sewer infrastructure and replacement
costs, water rate increases of 3.5 percent for City residents and 7.5
percent for non-City residents are included for the second year
in-a-row.
Overall, the proposal includes reductions grouped according to each of the City’s MAP plan Result Areas (visit www.greensboro-nc.gov/MAP
for more details on the MAP plan and Result Areas). Included are budget
reductions of $1,043,194 in infrastructure, $982,244 in public safety,
$715,762 in culture, recreation and community character, and $227,569 in
general government. In addition, 14 full-time equivalent positions
would be eliminated under the proposal, with no impact on sworn
employees, and another $2,350,201 in organization-wide reductions.
The
proposal also includes several fee increases designed to create revenue
for the City. Included among the increases are fees for group usage of
Parks and Recreation spraygrounds, a $10 increase in the late penalty
for overdue parking tickets, and development review fee increases
designed to improve the City’s cost recovery by an average of 50 percent
over the next four years.
The
recommended budget does include $1.29 million for the economic
development fund, including the funding of the Big Box Loan program, the
Good Repair program, the redevelopment of the Renaissance Center and
the City’s contribution to the $1 million SC2 economic development
challenge. In terms of budget enhancements, $50,000 is included for a
City-wide survey, $40,519 is proposed for additional resources for code
enforcement and inspections, and first-year funding of $70,000 for a
newly proposed Office of Accountability.
An overview of some of the budget reductions and recommendations, listed by Result Area:
Public Safety
· Delay the recruit classes for the Greensboro police and fire departments;
· Reduce the number of school crossing guards funded by the City.
Culture, Recreation and Community Character
· Reduce the number of open-play hours at the Greensboro Sportsplex;
· Eliminate funding for the Greensboro Youth Council Carnival;
· Transfer ownership of War Memorial Stadium to NC A&T State University.
Infrastructure
· Increase fees for planning permits and bond engineering projects;
· Savings realized through recycling materials contract;
· Reductions in landscape maintenance costs.
General Government
· Increase the late fee penalty for overdue parking tickets by $10 after 90 days;
· Eliminate supplemental pay for worker’s compensation, reducing the level the City pays to the state mandated amount.
Organization-Wide Reductions
· Reduce Lankford Security contract;
· Reduce internal equipment services charges.
