The preliminary City of Auburn budget projects a 1-percent property tax levy increase in 2015 and 2016 and a one-time increase of $600,000 in 2015 to pay for six new positions, among them three Auburn Police Department employees and one code enforcement officer.
Meantime, the City’s total general fund budget, including fund balance, for 2015-2016 is $73.4 million and $70 million, respectively, the 2015 budget anticipating a 2.8-percent increase from 2014 and the 2016 budget a 4.7-percent decrease from 2015.
Mayor Nancy Backus said the budget represents a meeting of many minds over many hours in a process that began in June.
“It’s not been done in a silo, it’s a collaboration that all department directors were able to support,” Backus said Monday. “There was more information available to council this year. They received line-item information, and each director was able to present his or her own budget. We didn’t leave it all on Finance Director Shelley Coleman this time to tell the story. Each department director knows his or her own story best. The council asked more questions this time because they had more to go through.”
The story of the 2015-16 City budget, shaped by 14 hours of City Council reviews, wraps up Dec. 15 when the council approves the hefty document and sends it to the state.
Among the highlights are;
• Street widening on South 277th, improvements on the Southeast 320th corridor, safety improvements on Auburn Way South and West Main Street improvements. The arterial street fund for these projects in the next two years draws from the fund balance, motor vehicle excise taxes, real estate excise taxes, federal and state grants and developer contributions. The fund’s budget total $15.5 million in 2015 and $13.2 million in 2016.
• Traffic signal improvements and city-wide sidewalk repairs and improvements. These projects are listed in the capital improvements fund, projected to be $2.2 million in 2015 and $5.6 million in 2016.
• The municipal parks construction fund budget calls for work on the Sunset Park spray park, Les Gove Park improvements and construction of the Auburn Community and Youth/Teen Center at Les Gove Park. Funding for the Community and Youth/Teen center is aided by $3 million in state grants.
• The six new positions outlined above: a facilities and property analyst in administration; a police records specialist; a police bicycle officer; a major crimes detective; a code enforcement officer; and an Information and Technology Department support lead.
City officials expect the net effect of all staffing changesto increase city-wide annual salaries and wages from $33.4 million in 2014 to $34.4 million in 2015 and $35.5 million in 2016.
“When the budget was presented by all of the directors in our review meetings, 13 positions were desired amongst all of the departments,” Backus said. “We have enough money to fund half of those. So I gave the directors six votes and gave them time to think about it. When they came back after lunch, each one got to pick six positions they thought should be funded. We agreed at the end of that process that the six would be the ones moved forward. And to their credit, some of the directors did not vote for their own position, but saw the value greater in another department.”
