Planning Commission Regular Meeting/Work Session

James FeatherThank you, Mr. Napty. For those of you who had a chance to get at least partly into the CIP, you'll notice it does look very much different in terms of the number of items that are out there. There are, of course, a large number of transportation projects, some of which we may want to emphasize. They don't have a direct impact on the general fund budget, but we're always sensitive to how we spend the resources that we have. But let me just at this point turn it over to see if any of you have any questions or comments at this point on Mr. Napdi's report or what we heard at our last meeting or anything that you've gleaned so far going through the plan. Ms. Lockhart. Ms. Lockhart. I

Paul Cunninghamwanted. Thank you. That's the page I wanted and that page is perfect. It says that for FY2026, the adopted general fund portion of the CIP appears to be $48,239,164. And the total capital program budget for FY26, which is the approved one we're operating, one is $97,068,775. So I presume those are the actual numbers we are working off of. What I am going to reference in my comments here is let's just go back 10 years to 2016 And in 2016, the actual general fund number was $6,465,532. So from 2016 to 2026, that looks like about an eight times increase in what we're putting into the capital improvement program. If I look at the $97 million and go back to 2016, that number was $34,850,332, or about three times the amount that we were putting into the capital improvement 10 years ago.

So when I go back and look at the real estate tax records on my house in 2016, it's a little under $8,000. And when I look at the current assessment area, it's a little over $10,000. So that 2000 delta is a 25% increase in my property taxes. When I look at a 25% increase in my property taxes, but a six-fold increase in the CIP for general funding and a three-fold increase, a 3X increase in the total capital improvement program, my question in a budgeting standpoint is, where's this money coming from? I'm obviously not paying for it. so where when we get this far out of out of alignment is the funding coming from when we talk about being in a tight budget position and i know in the last 10 years we started out with

I'm starting to question, I guess, in my own mind, the things that are in the CIP and the costing of it. And with that, the comment I'll make is that in the 2007-8 time frame when we planning commission was dealing with the CIP I think we were at least a year ahead of the City Council and looking at the fact that the city owned a water plant and if anything went wrong what was the risk because did we have the tax base to carry it if we needed to do major work to advance that project and it took several years but the council eliminated that as a major risk to the city and so the cip is a vehicle for the planning commission to talk about what's going on in the city on things that aren't only general fund small projects but bigger projects and that's

something i have a responsibility i think to look at with my fellow planning commissioners at least comment on city council can do as they choose and so can staff when we look forward a number of years in tight budget conditions we hit a low in 2011 of the entire general fund portion of the cip is $1,701,600. So from where we were at the worst of economic times to now, adjustments have to be made in the CIP, and I can understand that. Now when we look at things like the small area plans and say how do they fit into the CIP and the projects we're looking at, I start to scratch my head a little bit 2019 com plan that we spent three and a half years working hard to get to fruition this the small area plans dealt with the five major business areas in the city

James Feathera number of transportation projects have external funding external to the general fund for example right

want to make sure we understand what are projects that are in the activity centers versus what are called out in the CIP. And the reason I bring that up is because of your experience in your interview about some trepidation about some of what's in the small area plans, how much of the small area plans are really calling for general fund spending and capital versus what something happens to be in the activity center?

Paul CunninghamIf we can go back to that last slide that was a summary of all the budget stuff. if the proposal if I go over that blue column for the proposed for 27 ends up being 13,500,000 roughly the proposal for 28 is 32,600,000 the proposal for is 43 million 800. The proposal for 20 for 30 is 82 million. Uh, that's not a very smooth line when we're talking about a capital improvement program. That's, that's a discussion for chaos and the general fund as to what gets funded and what doesn't. We've got more projects that are valid projects than we can handle in any year. and the ones we don't get to don't become invalid projects. So this is a challenging process to deal with the CIP and fund the most important projects to the city.

And I think that's part of where our role as the Planning Commission comes in in trying to at least make a suggestion on what we think is the highest priority in any given year and recognize that in the subsequent years, this process doesn't get any easier. And I'm not even going to comment on the other funds that come down below that come from other sources. I'm just talking about the general fund taxes when we're moving across there. So I congratulate my fellow planning commissioners for digging into this and bringing a reasoned voice to the recommendation we make. Thank you.

James Featheryou see a column that shows an adopted number of say 48 million in the general fund but 163 is a revised budget because there have been prior year appropriations in case you were wondering what that meant. I was puzzled, so I'd contacted the finance office today. But I think, Mr. Cunningham, you're right. The column we should be looking at are the blue ones. Each individual year's appropriation is what we're talking about, to the extent that we want to weigh what the dollars are, Mr. Rice.

Paul CunninghamAnd this year we have moved a number of those kind of items that are maintenance items or the purchase of vehicle items out of the general fund funding that our focus, I think, can be tailored more to what's in the general fund funding, which is where the bulk of our priorities are. And then we look at the other funding sources and things along that line to see that they align with our overall priorities. And if there's something that sticks out in there that warrants special mention, then those kind of projects we should probably discuss as to why they need special mention and whether we agree that those things should be brought to the attention of council and their deliberations. So since we have moved out of talking about trucks and road paving and sewer systems,