I’m really just over it.

I was going to invest some quality time writing a witty and entertaining blog post but I really can't be bothered.  If the Mayans have it right, everything stops on Friday anyways so I'll not be investing any time screwing around with blog posts.  Indeed, my fondest hope this morning is to simply brain dump some budget jargon onto the screen so that I can finish my "Duck Dynasty" marathon before the world ends.  Hopefully I won't run out of TV dinners, coffee or wine before Friday 'cause I ain't leaving the house.  So, here goes:

I have had some ask me "Why is the city budget so complicated?  Are you guys hiding something?"  My replies: 1. having a simple budget for a large organization invites abuse.  The budget needn't be overly complicated but accounting for and managing the city's money is a big job and 2. no.  The lynchpin in understanding the City's budget is to understand the "Funds".  It's how the City segregates revenue streams and pays for stuff.  There are really 5-6 important funds and those funds all have (mostly) different funding sources.  However, all of the money that is spent in these funds is taxpayer money.  This isn't comprehensive but you'll get the idea:

The Big Kahuna is the "General Fund".  Roads, Cops, Schools, Staff, Public Works.  This is the fund that pays for most stuff in the city.  It has a number of income streams including Real Estate taxes, sales tax, car tax, bpol, m&t, etc.  Over half the money that comes into the General Fund is shared with the schools according to a funding agreement.  When people talk about cutting or raising taxes, this is the fund they're usually talking about.

Public Safety (Fire) Fund: Fire & Rescue and all associated infrastructure – buildings, repairs, trucks, staff, etc.  Funded by Real Estate taxes in the form of the fire levy and some grants.  This fund has grown the fastest of late but it needed to.  We can't be screwing around with 20 year old fire trucks.  They cost more to repair than replace and reliability is key.

Water: the water fund is paid for/funded through your water bill.  That $1.5 million dollar project we approved last night to begin replacing our water line from the lake will be paid for through your water bill.  

Sewer: same as water and is actually a line item on your water bill.  Look for this item to continue to escalate as the Chesapeake Bay cleanup continues to stumble along b/c gov't water and stormwater bureaucrats can't get it right.  I'm all for cleaning up the bay but sooner or later you have to look upstream.  It isn't magic….Sorry, I'm offtopic…

Electric: electric bill pays for this one.  Ongoing capital investment but mainly in maintenance and upgrades.

Airport: paid for by leasing lots out at the airport for private entities to build hangars and other facilities on.  Operated by and "Airport Board" but expenditures are approved by Council.  Receives no general fund revenue!  Gets a lot of money through federal and state grants for building projects.

Additionally, each of these funds has its own fund balance and CIP.  The current debate we're having about not funding the CIP is only for the General Fund.  The other funds are pretty immune to the political debate.  Much of their spending is driven by our wise overlords in Richmond in the form of unfunded mandates.  Although to be fair, the folks in Richmond are in many cases passing along requirements from those bozos in Washington.  

I do get questions from time to time about why each fund has its own savings account (fund balance).  It's a question I asked when I was first elected: aren't we needlessly tying up taxpayer money here?  The answer is not really.  The two biggest fund balances (pretty sure) are the general fund and the electric fund.  The General Fund is the city's savings account and needs to be large enough to deal with big problems: a $1million dollar snowstorm cleanup for instance.  The electric fund is a bit of an odd duck in that the cash operating requirements for that fund are huge – it pays for all of the electricity used in the city every month.  That requires a lot of cash – you might be late paying your bill but the city can't be.  It's mainly just passed through from ratepayers to Dominion but it's got to be paid.  The other funds should also normally accumulate some amount of fund balance as well.  If you have infrastructure, it needs to be maintained and/or replaced over time.

Hopefully this helps.  If we get through Friday, I promise to dedicate a bit more effort to another budget post – I'll spend some time on the revenue sharing agreement.  Ought to be interesting where that ends up…..