Council approves $316M city budget

At last night’s Springfield City Council meeting, Mayor Bob Stephens heaped praise on Finance Director Mary Mannix Decker for making the fiscal 2014 budget clear and understandable during a series of luncheon meetings before council unanimously approved the $315.85 million budget.

Council is obligated under the city charter to approve a budget before the end of June; the 2014 fiscal year begins July 1.

Next fiscal year’s budget is 1.8 percent larger than the $310.28 million the city is operating under through the rest of fiscal 2013. The 2012 fiscal budget was $314.78 million. The city’s 1 percent sales tax revenue from the Missouri Department of Revenue is down 1.5 percent year-to-date compared to the same period through May 2012.

Driving the increases in the upcoming budget is an anticipated rise in general revenues. Revenues and appropriations are expected to increase 5.9 percent to nearly $77 million from $72.7 million in fiscal 2013. The special revenue fund is expected to remain nearly flat at $96.4 million. Enterprise funds, which run on their own revenue streams and include the airport and solid waste services, will see their appropriations increase slightly to $80.4 million from $78.8 million, according to officials.

At the May 20 public hearing, Decker said the city was adding 17 new positions: one in information systems, one in finance, one in planning, one in public works, nine in parks and four in clean water services. The budget, Decker said, includes 1.5 percent pay increases for all employees, as well as merit increases.

She said on May 20 the budget accounts for the city’s continued commitment to improving the Police and Fire Pension Fund and supporting those who moved from the city’s fund to the statewide Lagers pension fund.

“We are well on our way to getting that fully funded,” Decker said.

The fiscal 2014 budget includes money to pay for a new city phone system, replacing a 20-year-old system, which would result in savings after a seven-year payoff, she said.

The city’s reserve fund has reached a stated three-year goal of 20 percent of the general revenue fund after being down during the recession, according to Decker.

No speakers addressed council during the public hearing.