Council moving forward with proposed $366M city budget

Springfield City Council on Monday night held an initial review of $366 million in proposed city spending during the 2019 fiscal year.

A final budget vote is expected June 4, with the 2019 fiscal year starting July 1. Council passed a $348 million budget last year.

As proposed, the fiscal 2019 budget assumes no property tax levy increases over the previous year. The tax levy is expected to remain at roughly 62 cents per $100 of valuation, generating about $20.5 million for the city, said Teresa Allen, a city financial analyst.

Springfield financial analyst Brandie Fisher said the city’s projected general fund budget totals $84 million, which is up by roughly 1.3 percent from fiscal 2018.

Fisher said revenue from sales and use taxes is expected to grow by 2 percent over the year prior. Payments in lieu of taxes to the city via City Utilities are projected to be up 2.5 percent, and gross receipts from telecommunication and cable television companies are estimated to decrease by 7 percent.

The revenue sources serve as the “big three” for the city, she said.

“All other remaining revenue is essentially flat,” Fisher said. “And this brings us back to the projected total increase of 1.3 percent for fiscal year 2019.”

City Manager Greg Burris said he focused the budget on four main points: employee recruitment and retention, public safety, economic vitality and fiscal sustainability.

On economic vitality, Burris said the city plans to create three full-time-equivalent positions to bring on an additional code administrator, fire-review specialist and senior planner.

He said the city also plans to expand its dangerous building program, continue its lease with the Missouri Job Center in the CoxHealth north-side medical tower and create an airport-route guarantee.

The guarantee “allows the airport staff and the airport board to go out and solicit additional routes for our airport,” Burris said. “That guarantee cannot come from the airport, so there’s a variety of partners, including the city of Springfield, we propose, that provide that guarantee.”

Fisher said the city plans to add 21.5 full-time equivalent employees, including 11 for the Springfield Police Department, seven for Environmental Services, one for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board and one for the city’s Risk Management program.

She said Greene County would fund an additional 1.5 FTEs for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

Overall, Burris said the city has been conservative with its revenue projections.

“We don’t think we’ve gone crazy with our optimism here,” he said. “And we’ve been fairly accurate for the past couple of years.”