The Carmel City Council voted unanimously to approve Mayor Jim Brainard’s city budget for 2015 after a last-second proposed cut by one councilor.
City Councilor Luci Snyder suggested at the final meeting that $1.2 million be cut from the city’s $131,020,555 budget. This represents about 1.6 percent of the budget.
Snyder asked for the cut because there were some discrepancies when it came to revenue projections. Curt Conrod, a financial consultant for the city, projected excise tax to be around $4.2 million and revenue from permits to be around $2.1 million. The Clerk-Treasurer’s Office said they received numbers that projects $2.9 million for excise and $1.7 million for permits.
Snyder said the difference in revenue projections equals $2.6 million and instead of arguing about which projection is right or wrong she felt it would be wise to “split the difference” and cut $1.3 million.
City Councilor Sue Finkam said she believes Coonrod’s estimates are sound because they are based on past figures and it should be expected that with a growing population that these revenues will rise.
Snyder said she’s concerned about $935,195,000 in city debt, which represents $11,800 per capita if you use the 2010 census number of 79,191 people. Even with 85,000 as an adjusted population, the per capita is still around $11,000 per person.
“Finances are interconnected and the entire picture must be considered,” she said. “My decision is always to make the more conservative decision as I am spending other people’s money and I believe that in this unsettled economic environment, it is wise to be prudent. The economy is not robust and we are not in recovery. The stock market reflects the unsettled economy and economists believe we could slip into another recession.”
Brainard didn’t argue about the $1.3 million cut and he agreed to take that out of the money that was double-budgeted for bond repayments.
Dan McFeely, consultant to the mayor, said the term “double-budgeted appropriation” applies to debt service appropriations, where the exact amount is predetermined. The money can be paid from several different funds and one might be preferable to the mayor so Carmel regularly places identical debt service appropriations in two different places in the budget and then drops the one that is less advantageous for the city. So, in this case, the $1.3 million will be taken out of this “double-budgeting” process.
