Budget preparation important and challenging for city officials
The spokesmen for local special interests came before Hillsboro City Council this past week, highlighting achievements and sharing plans for even better things in the coming year. And, if you pay taxes, they ask for more of your money to pay for them.
The requests were made by some of Hillsboro's most respected volunteer leaders, most of them professionally qualified and experienced in the interest area they'd come to represent. In person, or by letter, they told the council they would be asking for funds — for hospital upgrades and improvements, to help start-up businesses, to attract more visitors, to buy sports scoreboards, and to create in our city an "urban forest" of trees.
While they were not formal budget presentations, the spokesmen all indicated their groups would ask for the same amount of money in 2007 that they received in 2006.
Some said they would be asking for more.
Deciding which of these requests are most deserving of funding is just one factor to be considered as the city begins final deliberation on the 2007 budget.
In an open-meeting process that receives increasingly less interest or input from the general public, the council, along with city administrator Steve Garrett, are putting together a consolidated city budget for the next operating year, which begins Jan. 1, 2007.
A proposed budget must be published by the end of July, as required by law, before a public hearing in early August. The final budget must be approved and delivered to the county treasurer Aug 10.
Often lost in the jumble of numbers and jargon is the fact that the budget is more than a financial statement. It's a detailed map for the city, setting a fixed course for the coming year.
"The budget process is the most important policy issue that we deal with," said Mayor Delores Dalke. "Once the budget is set, that's it. This is the policy setting time for the city of Hillsboro."
While entities like Hillsboro Community Medical Center, Hillsboro Development Corporation, and recreation commission all receive allocations based on a percentage of collected property tax revenues, additional funding for these groups is made at council's discretion.
It's too soon to determine which, if any, special interest groups may be facing budget constraints. But according to Dalke, the groups have received generous funding in the past because Hillsboro has enjoyed uncommonly robust health as a city.
In the past 10 years, Dalke says she has led the battle to hold the line on property taxes, while increasing funds available to operate the city by adding new homes and business to the tax rolls.
The city's tax base during the past decade increased from $7.5 million in assessed evaluation in 1996, to $14.2 million in 2006. During the same period, the mill levy, the factor by which property is assessed, dropped from 55.904 in 1996, to a low of 40.155 in 1999. The mill levy has risen no higher than 41.024 since 1996. The mill levy for 2006 is 40.962.
The expanding tax base has allowed the city to make improvements to downtown, the library, utility plants, housing developments, and at the hospital, without raising taxes, Dalke said.
But the money that the city borrowed for these projects must be repaid in the form of bond obligations. And the city has agreed to set aside five mills for the hospital, four mills for the library and one mill each for recreation and industrial development. Add to this the amount the city must pay to keep the utility plants running, and to pay for employee salaries and benefits, and it all adds up in a hurry.
The 2006 operating budget for the city of Hillsboro is $6,569,375.
Much of the time, Dalke said, she fights the perception that budgets are made to be broken.
"There is a perception out there that if you can get money from the government it doesn't cost anything," Dalke said. "Free money is what they think it is, but every dollar we get for this city is tax money, therefore I think it needs to be used very wisely."
As the spokesmen made their presentations to the council June 20, Dalke and Garrett were considering the groups' effectiveness over the past year. In the back of their minds was the question, "Are these groups making Hillsboro a more attractive, better place to live?"
"We want to hear what our money is buying," Dalke said. "Are we paying for improvements to our city or are we frittering it away because it is only tax money?
"It takes a lot of thinking things through," she added. "We have to ask ourselves, how can we get the most bang for the buck? Is it by giving money to a special interest group or by hiring another employee to repair the streets? These are the things we deal with when it comes to budget time."
Garrett agreed, adding that at some point the council may be asked to make cuts or even eliminate programs that aren't working. In the process, it would be helpful to know which group contributes most to improving the quality of life, or what convinced a family or business to move to Hillsboro.
For example, was it the hospital, or the new businesses? The cultural events, or the recreation facilities?
Or was it the "urban forest" of trees?
"There is some reading of tea leaves involved in all of this," Garrett said, of the budget-balancing act being performed at city hall. "Government can do it, and it's kind of hard sometimes, but that's what we try to do here. While always keeping in mind that somebody is paying for this."
