The amounts are recommendations from senior staff within the Fairfield administration, said Mary Hopton, Fairfield’s finance director.
“There was some discussion on it,” she said. “The recommendation was based on some operational stuff as well as past history of what the organizations do.”
Hopton said they will plan to move the orchestra, which provides a summer concert at Fairfield’s Village Green, away from receiving a grant to a contractor with the city’s parks department, similarly to what the city does with any other concert at Village Green.
The grants discussion on Monday were at the tail end of a general budget overview of the city’s 2017 operations budget.
Roughly 74 percent of the expected $77.7 million in revenues for the city comes from three sources: income tax, charges for services and property taxes. It’s expected that just under $71.4 million will be spent in 2017, with the three largest expenditures being public safety, public utilities and general government.
Revenue budget estimates for 2017 are higher than what city officials are projecting for 2016 in revenues.
“Our economic base is our revenue stream which is very important,” said Hopton. “Taking a look at it over the last several months, we’re averaging upwards of 75 percent based on our employer’s withholding, which is a very good thing. That means our employers are doing well, hiring, paying bonuses.”
There will be two additional budget meetings to discuss the details of the various departments over the next two council-manager work sessions. The budget is expected to be approved by City Council at its last meeting of the year in December.
Part of the city’s budget is its general fund, which is expected to start the year off with $11.2 million and projected to have revenues and expenses practically offset. The ending balance is expected to be a net gain of $20,000. General fund revenues are estimated to be $29.09 million while proposed expenditures are set at $29.07 million.
The city is set to continue maintaining a 25 percent reserved balance, known as the rainy day fund, which is projected to be just more than $7.27 million. All other departmental funds require just a 10 percent reserved balance.
Hopton said the personnel costs in the 2017 budget are projected to be “pretty much flat” as the city will begin renegotiating union contracts next year. No raises are built into the budget outside of the mandatory step increases.
The contracts will be negotiated with the city’s unreserved fund balance, Hopton said, which is projected to be $3.95 million in 2017.
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