Budget Adoption Process

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Steve Adler
Posts: 533
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:12 pm

Budget Adoption Process

Post by Steve Adler »

Colleagues:

I propose for consideration that we work from a base budget (Council Concept Budget) that takes advantage of the work we have done so far. We can then propose our revisions to this Council Concept Budget, rotating within each subject area. I’ve outlined how this would work as follows:

DISCUSSION AND VOTING PROCESS:

1. Begin with the Council Concept Budget which reflects the concept menu items and discussions we have had to date. I explain this proposed Council Concept Budget below.

2. Each Councilmember should post any changes (in the form of a written motion) to the proposed Council Concept Budget on the Council Message Board by Monday at 5pm. This would be the same process that has been used in the past, which allows all Council Members to view, before we begin on Tuesday, the items that Council Members are planning to propose on Tuesday. The difference is that these changes would be to the proposed Council Concept Budget.

3. COUNCIL MEMBERS MAY BRING UP AN ITEM ON THE DAIS, EVEN IF THEY HAVE NOT FILED A WRITTEN MOTION ON MONDAY. Again, this is the same approach as has been used previously.

4. The Council Concept Budget will be discussed by subject area.

• When we take up each subject area, Council Members will raise their hands if they have a change to propose and state briefly what the item is. That allows all Council Members to hear what items will be proposed.
• Mayor will then call on Council Members in rotation order (changing the order for each of the subject areas) to make their motions, present their rationale, discussion, and then vote.
• Items that the Council votes to include, will then be added to the proposed Council Concept Budget (in a different color and displayed on screen)
• To avoid any advantage that could inadvertently come from the order in which Council Members present their items - THE COUNCIL CONCEPT BUDGET DOES NOT HAVE TO BALANCE AFTER EACH ITEM. COUNCIL WILL DISCUSS THE IMPACT OF ALL ITEMS AT THE END AFTER GOING THROUGH THE ENTIRE COUNCIL CONCEPT BUDGET.

5. After voting on all items proposed by Council Members for all subject areas on the Council Concept Budget, the Council will discuss the balances indicated on the Council Concept Budget by all these changes combined. Council Members can then propose adjustments, in line with their overall goals for the budget. For example, Council Members may propose voting again on previously proposed items or may propose new items to impact the overall balance. This approach is similar to past years.

PROPOSED COUNCIL CONCEPT BUDGET

Here is an Excel spreadsheet (http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 92204.xlsx) that shows, on the left, the Concept Menu to date, and on the right side the Council Concept Budget that lists, generally, the items that received support during our straw polls on the 1st. (There may be items that I’ve inadvertently omitted – for example, items added after our discussion on the 1st. But, as described above, our process Tuesday will allow anyone to propose changes.)

The first page of the Council Concept Budget is a summary page and pulls together the subtotals for each of the categories that we used as our framework over the last couple weeks. I’ve posted as an Excel spreadsheet and encourage Council Members to use as they consider their proposed changes on the overall budget.

Highlights of the proposed Council Concept Budget:

1. Balance for one time funds combined with the General Fund balance offset each other and allows for investments in basic services, basic needs and health safety net, and maintenance of responsible financial policies.

2. Reduces the property tax rate from $0.4809 in FY2014-15 to $0.4598 for FY2015-16 and a reduction in property tax bill of the median priced home by $12.00.

3. Recognizes investments in our people through quality of life initiatives, parks and libraries, health and human services with a combination of block grants to increase investments and specific programs in some areas:

• Quality of Life. A total of $2.7 million in new spending addresses longstanding quality of life proposals that historically may not have gotten sufficient support.

• Parks and Libraries. About $3 million in new spending for Parks and Libraries, shown as both specific appropriations and a Block amount to address Council and staff priorities through later action.

• Health and Human/Social Services. As shown below proposed social service and public health investments total $7.1million. These investments in health and human services generally meet the requirements of Resolution no. 20141211114 that called for $6.7 million in social services and health investments with 55% total social services and 45% toward public health.

HEALTH
Item CM TOTAL
NEW Adler Asian-American Chronic Care $250,000
1.37 Renteria Funding for outreach, education, and enrollment services for the increased enrollment of the City’s uninsured population $300,000
1.38 Renteria Funding for the increased support of the Rundberg community’s efforts to minimize health issues $175,000
1.44 Renteria Create a Latino Chronic Care Initiative in the HHSD $1,500,000
1.25 Garza Support HHS Committee's recommendation to fund public health programs aimed at decreasing health inequities $1,122,854
1.29 Pool Add $400,000 for a grant program administered by Health and Human Services, with collaboration by the Office of Sustainability in underserved areas–including zip codes 78744 and 78745–to incentivize and help local retail food stores offer healthy food options and to engage with local communities to develop support for healthy food options $400,000
TOTAL $ 3,747,854

HUMAN SERVICES
Item CM TOTAL
1.03 IFC 20141211114 Annual increase to expand scope of social services contracts $2,000,000
1.04 IFC 20150618084 Funding to advance progress for establishing a sobriety center $100,000
1.09 Tovo AISD: Parent Support Specialist $684,000
1.10 Tovo AISD: Continued funding of Prime Time Afterschool programs $520,000
1.22 Houston Support Charles 'Nook' Byrd's 'Jump on It Teen Night' activities $15,000
1.32 Garza Fund River City Youth Foundation's Summer of Safety (SOS) program through a HHS Dept. social services contract to serve youth in Dove Springs (78744) $35,000
TOTAL $ 3,354,000

GRAND TOTAL $ 7,101,854
Mayor
Leslie Pool
Posts: 231
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:22 pm

Re: Budget Adoption Process

Post by Leslie Pool »

All, I'm happy to advise my staff and I were able to lower the dollar costs for some of my initiatives. Please make note the following updates to the Excel workbook posted earlier tonight by Mayor Adler and I'll make these changes formally when the items are called on the dais:

1.53 :: reduce funds needed to restore library hours to pre-Great Recession levels from $712,000 to $347,000 (rounded); funding for this is Option 1 in the backup.
1.54 :: remove item for FY16 ($400,000); potential to consider FY17.
1.60 :: reduce funds needed for walkway repairs at NW Pool from $1.5 million to $210,160 (page 32 of the online Aquatics Assessment doc)
1.70 :: move this item from Parks to Eco Dev (relates to CodeNEXT) $3,800 to fund livestream of key CodeNEXT Citizen Advisory Group meetings

Thanks, and I look forward to working through our budget amendments with you on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Leslie
Leslie Pool
Mayor Pro Tem
Council Member, District 7
Delia Garza
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:20 am

Re: Budget Adoption Process

Post by Delia Garza »

I want to start by thanking the Mayor’s office for putting this proposal together. I understand and appreciate the goal to balance the comments from Council and priorities in a fair and thoughtful way.

That said, I do have a few concerns.

First, I believe there is some utility to discussing or at a minimum, voting on each amendment individually even if we do use the new proposed package as a starting point. This provides a safe space for deliberation, and could further vet items that may need to be reduced, increased, or eliminated altogether.

I would have preferred to have this discussion about the process prior to the straw poll Council had this week. That conversation was framed as indicating support for including items for discussion, not as support for necessarily including those items in the budget. If we had that process discussion prior to the straw poll we all could have weighed in on the process itself, and it would have likely changed at least some of our votes during that process.

I want to emphasize again that I believe the best of intentions went into this proposal and was an attempt to streamline the process. However, I’m concerned that what has been proposed is more a proposed budget rather than a proposed process. I also noticed a concept item that (I believe) we are seeing for the first time.

Again, I appreciate the intents behind this proposal and will be ready to move forward with this process if it’s the will of the Council, and realize it may be in our best interest to follow the Mayor’s proposal in some form for the sake of having a couple of days to prepare prior to the budget readings.

Our office will be working on amendments and other comments to be posted to the message board by Monday.
One amendment of note will be in relation to the health and human services section. We’ve had extensive conversations with stakeholders and staff to find a way to balance many of our unmet needs in that area, and will have several options that I believe will help us achieve those goals.

Best,
Delia Garza
Mayor Pro Tem, District 2
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