FY2018 Recommended Budget

User Fees The Town assesses a variety of User Fees for Town services including administration fees, inspection permits, police alarm fees, fire department services, and permit fees. During the Fiscal Year 2018 budget development process, departments evaluated fee structures and rates for market comparability, value for services provided, and cost recovery, where appropriate. Only minor changes in these fees for service have been recommended and are illustrated in the User Fee Schedule included in the budget document.

Minor changes to development fees are recommended to fill some fee gaps and adjust appropriately for services. Changes were applied to most building inspections fees in the previous budget year, only a minor adjustment is recommended this year to implement an after-hours inspection fee for Monday through Friday requests. Fire inspection fees have increased slightly to better address cost recovery.

Parks and Recreation fees are periodically adjusted to market outside of the annual budget review cycle and are included in the fee schedule for transparency and consistency. Some minor market adjustments are anticipated at this time, but will vary depending on program and market conditions as the programs operate.

Operational Expenditures A routine part of the annual budget preparation is a review of the base budget for each department’s operations, which aids in understanding the core costs of ongoing and routine activities, and helps clearly identify the budget capacity for new initiatives and one-time funding requests. Additions to the base budget due to changes in programs, services and personnel are identifiable and driven by decisions made by Town Council during the budget review process. Staff have demonstrated fiscal responsibility and a measured approach to recommending adjustments to the base budget and have historically controlled growth in these areas. Basic routine services and recurring expenses (excluding transfers, contributions and grants, and capital outlay) are approximately $24.9 million annually at current operational service levels. The Fiscal Year 2018 budget provides additional funding above the base operating budget to support over $10 million in priorities that enhance accomplishment of strategic priorities, invest and reinvest in infrastructure, and the proactive preparation for future needs and expectations of the Town. Of the recommendation appropriations, over 80% are one-time or nonrecurring items. A significant amount of the proposed spending is devoted to capital projects and utilizes approximately $2.5 million in fund balance capacity towards the funding of these recommendations. An additional $1.5 million of reserves/designated allocations are set aside toward designated future spending as directed by Town Council, including roads and transportation, sidewalk/pedestrian projects future fire apparatus and capital improvement planning. Approximately 10% of the Fiscal Year 2018 proposed spending above a base budget is related to debt service for road improvement projects. Debt service expenditures for Fiscal Year 2018 reflect the full debt service payment for McCrimmon Parkway Phase I, and recommended debt service for the Town’s cost share of $2.7 million for the Morrisville-Carpenter Road project. This debt service is anticipated as a shorter-term (seven years) than bond debt but still provides for efficient use of debt financing and balancing of debt payments in future operating budgets, and strategic leveraging of remaining fund balance capacity to support other commitments during the fiscal year. The initial, interest only, debt service payment for Phase II of the McCrimmon Parkway Extension project is also included in the proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budget. Debt service is net of retired debt from other projects.

The remaining 10% is primarily associated with personnel expenditures and nominal base operating budget adjustments. The requests for recurring expenditures represents less than 3% of the total Fiscal Year 2018 budget.

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