Fort Smith Administrator presents 2015 budget, expects no fee or tax hikes

The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday (Nov. 4) was presented with a balanced budget during its regular study session, but it does not yet include the recommended changes proposed by the Board of Directors at a series of meetings last month.

In his message to the Board at the beginning of the proposed budget book, City Administrator Ray Gosack said no cuts to citizen services were needed in the first draft of the proposed budget, despite an email to the contrary that he sent to the Board saying that it "may be time for us to consider a fundamental change in our General Fund services and the number of employees," Gosack wrote. "We have experienced this fiscal stress for at least 6 years, and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. The increasing frustration with the budget difficulties year after year may have to be solved by re-evaluating our ability to sustain current service and employment levels in the General Fund.”

Gosack's message introducing the budget further notes that sustaining current service levels in the city's budget was accomplished without raising taxes.

"All parts of the budget are balanced without any local tax or fee increases," he said.

The highlights from the budget include a general fund that is 4% smaller in Fiscal Year 2015 than the previous fiscal year, totaling $48 million. That total, Gosack said, was $2 million less than 2014's budget.

He also explained that all departments within city government were instructed to keep the same spending levels this year as last year.

"Due to financial constraints, all departments were asked to maintain their revised FY14 spending levels for FY15," he said. "Operating costs were trimmed to only basic levels of appropriations and capital was severely limited with the exception of the Fire and Parks programs funded by the 1/4% sales tax. The Police department will keep 5 patrol positions vacant for the year."

Gosack also said the city would add a net of 1.66 positions in the parks department, adding three full-time positions and 2.5 part-time positions to the parks department while the street and traffic control department will add 1.16 positions.

Included within the budget was also a comparison of ending fund balances in the general fund, which drops substantially from 2013's final ending fund balance of $10.07 million. The projected end fund balance for FY2015 is only $3.46 million. By law, the ending balance must be 7.5% of the budget. The city ended FY2011 with 17.8%, FY2012 with 19.7%, FY2013 with 12.2% and estimates it will end FY2014 with 11.7%.

Speaking to the Board of Directors during Tuesday's meeting, Gosack said the projections requested by city directors regarding the possible raising of franchise fees on city utilities and possibly adding fees to business licenses were not yet ready for Board review.

"In a couple of recent meetings you asked for some alternatives to provide resources for additional police and fire pension funding and for pay adjustments for city employees," he said. "The staff is currently working on those alternatives. We hope to have something to you either by the end of this week or the very early part of next week."

He added that the alternatives requested by the Board would be available prior to the next Thursday's (Nov. 13) budget meetings at the Fort Smith Police Department. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

Not included in the budget are possible fee increases tied to the city's efforts to be in compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. The city has said it expects to be sued by the federal government after negotiations broke down last month.

"A sewer rate adjustment is expected so that the city will have the resources necessary to begin compliance with the federal consent decree for wet weather sanitary sewer system improvements," he wrote, having previously indicated that rates could double or triple.