2012 budget passes tight council vote
Whitefish City Council passed the
fiscal year 2012 budget 4-3 at their regular meeting Sept. 6.
Councilors Turner Askew, Chris Hyatt and Phil Mitchell were
opposed. Mayor Mike Jenson broke the 3-3 tie.
The $37.8 million budget includes a 1.3
percent cost-of-living pay raise and 2 percent step increase for
all city employees, including police, fire, public works and
non-union employees. The budget funds about 90 full-time
employees.
Total expenditures and transfers are up
4.1 percent compared to 2011. The increase is due to many factors,
including the city taking control of the library, pay raises and a
27th payroll.
The city mill levy, however, is the
same as last year except for transferring 5.4 library mills from
the county to the city portion of the tax bill, which has no impact
on tax payers. An increase in the property tax base valuation of
4.2 percent for this year helped keep property tax levies down.
Whitefish’s total market value is estimated to be $1.02 billion, up
more than $710,000 from last year.
Fire and ambulance services are still
costing the city more than they bring in. The city will use
existing cash if the services exceed the amount budgeted for 2012.
A rate increase is proposed for responses made outside of city
limits to help offset some costs. Those increases were not included
in the 2012 budget since the proposal has not been reviewed by
staff or council.
Public works staffing was reduced by
one position when the city installed automatic water meters. A
meter reader was laid off, putting the department at about 29 full
time equivalent employees. Public works accounts for 32 percent of
the city’s work force, the highest percentage of all
departments.
Councilor Turner Askew said progress
has been made with the budget, although he has some concerns,
including a $300,000 transfer from a stormwater assessment fund to
the general fund.
“That’s like paying off a loan with a
credit card,” Askew said at the meeting.
He doesn’t believe the 2012 budget is
balanced if borrowing money from the stormwater fund is necessary.
The reserve was originally created to help pay for a future
stormwater project on State Park Road.
“One day we are going to need that
money and we just used it for something else,” Askew said. “This is
not a balanced budget, in my opinion.”
Councilor Phil Mitchell said the pay
raises “don’t sit well” with him and he also noted the $300,000
transfer from the stormwater fund.
He went on to credit the three
councilors elected in 2009, including Mitchell, Hyatt and Bill
Kahle, for helping the current council get the budget “back on
track.”
“We’re not there yet, though,” Mitchell
said. “The economy is still fragile. I can’t approve this
budget.”
Jenson strongly disagreed, saying that
the three councilors elected in 2009 “didn’t single handily come
here and create a balanced budget.”
“We would have done that whether you
were here or not,” he said, noting that state law requires the city
to have a balanced budget.
“This budget isn’t that far out of
whack,” Jenson said. “I don’t have a doomsday attitude.”
Hyatt said the city has taken some
steps toward trimming the budget but that it needs to be
tighter.
Councilor John Muhlfeld credited the
council for their “due diligence” in shaping a balanced budget. He
noted the budget doesn’t include an increase in the property tax
mill levy and that Whitefish has one of the lowest mill levies in
the state among similarly sized cities.
Columbia Falls, Havre, Lewistown and
Livingston each have more than 200 property tax mills, compared to
Whitefish’s 120, according to a city report.