Translate[Archived] Question #16: Prepare a budget memo that offers all alternative funding sources and options for public safety recruitment and retention. Why will the money increase if implemented in Oct vs Jul 1?
Question:
Please prepare a budget
memo that offers all alternative funding sources and options to provide additional
funding to the $1.5 million set aside to fund Public Safety Recruitment and
Retention Capabilities.
Response:
Pages 7.17 through 7.19 of the FY 2019
proposed operating budget document provide details on possible tax increase options
and the amount of revenue they would generate to support expenditure increases
for any purpose. They include the real estate and vehicle personal property
taxes; restaurant meals tax; transient lodging tax; admissions tax; business
license taxes; and the cigarette tax. The real estate and personal property
taxes have been advertised at a rate not to exceed the current rate and so
cannot be increased for calendar year 2018. The other sources are still
available. More information on some of these sources can be found in response
to the following budget questions:
- Question #03: What would a $0.04 increase (from $1.26 to $1.30) and a $0.09 increase (from $1.26 to $1.35) in the cigarette tax generate? What has the cigarette tax funded in the past?
- Question #04: What would a 1% increase in the meals tax generate for Affordable Housing? What could alternative proposals to the meals tax increase generate for Affordable Housing?
- Question #17: What would the hotel tax need to be to fully cover the operations of the Trolley?
- Question #36: How
much funding could be generated by the hotel tax if it were increased at
various levels?
Additionally, City Council has the option of looking for additional reductions of programs and initiatives in the City Manager's proposed budget.
Question:
Please explain why
an implementation of October 1 compared to July 1 will require more funding.
Response:
The FY 2019 proposed budget includes $1.5 million to increase public safety recruitment and retention capabilities. The City Manager has previously suggested that if the $1.5 million were spent over of a 9-month period, starting in October, that its on-going purchasing value increases to $2.0 million.
*Excludes step increases
As depicted above, an October 2018 implementation timing increases the annualized cost of the compensation increase above the $1.5 million by $0.5 million to $2.0 million. While staff is comfortable with an October start as the added $0.5 million cost in FY 2020 would be a manageable budget increment, any later start than October of 2018 makes the resulting FY 2020 impact much higher and not an increment from a year-to-year budget management standpoint that staff is comfortable with.