Ambitious capital projects and public safety improvements bring a steep price tag in the Concord city administration’s proposed operating budget, resulting in a 5.3 percent spending increase and 3.96 percent increase in the property tax rate.
Everything from employee compensation, reviving the parking fund and getting the new community center going to big-picture projects like the Langley Parkway expansion is tackled in the complete 631-page document released Friday night by City Manager Tom Aspell.
Here are some of the highlights detailed in Aspell’s transmittal letter. A breakdown of the proposed budget is also available online.
If approved without any changes, the operating budget for fiscal year 2019 would be $65 million – an increase of $3.2 million or 5.3 percent from the current adopted budget of $61 million.
The city anticipates about $41 million of that will be raised by property taxes. That would mean tax revenue increases by 4.8 percent from $39 million, and a 6 percent increase in all other revenues, according to city documents.
For taxpayers, that means the property tax rate would grow from $9.84 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $10.23 per $1,000 – an increase of 3.96 percent.
Debt service would increase by $794,000, bringing the total debt service to $7 million.
The budget also includes a “significant portion of the tax revenues generated” in the city’s North End Opportunity Corridor tax increment finance district enacted in 1998. The exact amount: $971,100, or 66 percent of the total new incremental assessed value within the district since it was established.
There are about $4 million in new expenses in this budget, about half of which relate to compensation and employee benefits.
About $375,000 will go toward the operation of the new community center scheduled to open in June. A little over half of that money is related to an added full-time maintenance technician and nine part-time employees.
Other Parks and Recreation costs would be reconstructing tennis courts at Memorial Field and Rolfe Park, replacing lights at White Park, work on the Memorial Field and Doane Dimond bleachers and significant work on the Beaver Meadow golf course’s pro shop and irrigation system.
Transportation infrastructure would see some significant attention, including the repaving of about 10 miles of streets this fiscal year and an additional 5 miles in the next fiscal year. The city is looking to continue rehabbing the Concord Municipal Airport and plans to make traffic signal improvements to the North Main Street/Bouton Street/I-393 intersection.
In addition, the city is looking to finish the designing, permitting and right of way easements for the Langley Parkway extension project, which was “strongly endorsed” by Concord’s Transportation Policy Advisory Committee as a high priority to create an alternative route to the city’s medical corridor.
On the police and fire side, several vehicles would be replaced, more money would be provided for fire dispatch operations and police Tasers would be replaced.
The budget also contains changes to how the parking fund is managed. About $150,000 of revenue typically realized in the general fund would be shifted to the parking fund, and about $90,000 would be invested to add more staff to parking enforcement.
These changes, along with additional meters and hours of enforcement and a different approach to how money is shared between the general and parking fund, are expected to bring big changes in parking revenue. Specifically, the city is anticipating an additional $649,000 in revenues in fiscal 2019. But those changes will also come with a $441,000 increase in expenses. The working capital parking fund is expected to increase from $12,000 to $32,200.
About $1.3 million in compensation adjustments costs and $638,000 for all other employee benefits are anticipated in new costs.
Retirement costs continue to be a challenge for Concord, as a $204,000 increase is expected in the coming year. According to city data, retirement costs rose from about $4.5 million in 2015 to just over $5.8 million in the proposed budget. Retirement costs now take up 8.9 percent of the general fund budget.
Electrical costs are also expected to rise by $90,500, or 11 percent, about half which is related to new electrical costs due to the community building.
The golf fund is projected to struggle with an anticipated loss of $78,000. Expenses are projected to be under $18,000 and revenues are expected to be under budget by $114,500 based on memberships, greens fees, cart rentals, driving range use, pro shop sales, concessions income and advertising revenue.
Indoor simulation revenue is expected to bring in $63,000, and expenses are projected to be just under budget.
City officials are expected to start discussing the budget May 21 through June 4. A public hearing and adoption is anticipated for June 14.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)