Or, instead of “done,” I could say the budget is ready. The 2006 City Budget is ready for 2006 to arrive. The City Council took final action on the 2006 budget at its December 13 meeting.
Among many things, the 2006 budget includes funding for two new initiatives for 2006. One is the Fire Station #4 project. The budget includes new funding for the staffing and new equipment the City will need to make the yet-to-be-built Fire Station fully operational. The building contract for Fire Station #4 will be put out to public bid in January 2006. The award of the contract is scheduled for March. We hope to be moving into the station sometime late 2006 or early 2007. We are spending money on staffing and equipping the new station before it is slated to open because we want the new station to be fully operational (or close to it) when the new doors are ready to open.
The other new initiative in the 2006 budget this year concerns the way in which the City maintains its 26+ buildings and park shelters. Earlier this year the City engaged a consultant to study each of our buildings and to develop a maintenance plan for each facility. The 2006 budget allocates money toward implementing those individual maintenance plans for each facility. This covers building elements such as window replacements, roof replacements, painting, HVAC equipment repair, etc. If we can’t take care of the stuff we have, why should citizens support giving the City more tax money for new stuff? We want to be good stewards of the physical assets that citizens have paid for. This is not a very sexy way to spend money, but it’s very necessary. And, it’s the right thing to do.
General Fund spending in 2006 is budgeted to increase 5.8% for operations and an additional 3.2% for new debt payments we’ll start making for the 2005 park bonds that citizens approved this past election day. Our tax levy, the mesaure of what the City will do to tax rates in Eden Prairie, will increase 4.1% for our operations and an additional 4.2% for the new park bonds. Spending and levy increases rarely match percentage point for percentage point. They are both important measures of the City’s financial soundness.
We’ve (the City Council and City staff) worked extra hours on the preparation of the this year’s budget. The spending and levy increases are higher than what the City has done in the past three years, so there was a strong desire on the Council to keep pushing staff for ideas on how to lower both numbers. It took some extra time, but now the budget is done…and ready for 2006.
