The city Council moved to approve an increase in the capital projects and general funds at Tuesday’s meeting, for the fiscal year of 2016 carryover in the amount of $5.5 million.
It’s not a surprise amount, according to Chris Meats, finance director of Green River, it comes down to timing and producing the correct dollar amount.
The raised budget amount is for previously started projects that are multi year projects with a vast majority of the funds coming from the Sixth Penny tax, $4 million of it. The vast majority of the projects the amount continues to fund are city infrastructure projects, streets, sewer lines.
“We’ve already funded and already committed funds,” Meats said. “The funds are available, contracts are signed.”
Timing is the reason for adding the fund amount after the fiscal year budget has already been established. The city is still making large sums of payments towards those contracts through the month of June, during the time the fiscal year budget needs to be finalized. The numbers would not be finalized in time for the budget.
“If we did, we would have to guess,” Meats said. “We tried establishing it years before. It got convoluted and confusing. This is the most, least confusing and more accurate way we found to do this.”
Meats said the amount doesn’t include any new funding coming from the budget.
It is for the timing issues, they roll the amount over to the next year. State statute requires the city to do an annual budget. They cannot have an expense without having a budget for that expense, Meats said. This is how the city complies with the statute.
“It’s a formality. We’re making sure we’re crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s, the governing body knows how much we’re spending,” Meats said. “We already agreed to contracts on the projects, we’re just doing paper work to make sure paper work matches the council’s directives or goals they want to accomplish that they’ve given us.”
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