Yorba
Linda finally has operating budgets for this and the next fiscal year
– adopted on a 4-1 vote two and a half months after the current
budget year began July 1 – with revenue expected to outpace
expenditures for both 2015-16 and 2016-17.
This is
the second two-year budget approved by the City Council after a
couple years of one-year spending plans during the recent recession.
The lone “no” vote came from Craig Young, who favored a
single-year plan.
Of
course, the budgets won't remain static for the next two years, as
the council always reviews income and outgo numbers during six-month
intervals and either tightens or loosens the purse strings as the
local economy waxes and wanes.
Surplus
is expected to be about $1.2 million for 2015-16 and $360,000 for
2016-17, even with a $2.4 million transfer each year to the Landscape
Maintenance Assessment District, some to subsidize deficits in
several of the city's 46 local landscape zones that cover 52 percent
of city residences.
Revenue
is projected to be near $33 million in 2015-16 and just over that
figure in 2016-17.
Most
landscape zone funds come from assessments on real estate due with
property taxes, with $5.7 million to be collected this year from
arterial and local zones.
Most
operating budget revenue – some 49 percent – comes from property
taxes, with 21 percent from sales taxes, 10 percent from franchise
fees on utilities and business licenses and taxes and the rest from
planning, engineering and recreation fees plus rents and interest.
Spending
includes 36 percent for policing, 21 percent for parks and
recreation,19 percent for general government, 13 percent for public
works and 11 percent for community development.
Four
highlights from the 83-page budget document:
--General
fund expenditures for police services, including the contracted
crossing guards, will take nearly $10.3 million this year and $10.5
million next year from the city's general fund, up from more than
$9.3 million last year.
Among
policing objectives: maintain “priority 1” response times of
less than five minutes, use proactive patrol activity to deter
criminal activity and “improve aggressive traffic enforcement.”
--The
library expects more than $4.5 million annual income the next two
years from its separate property tax stream as a former independent
district (1914-1985), with $500,000 added to reserves each year,
savings to help finance a new facility.
--The
Black Gold Golf Club expects revenues close to $6 million this year
and just over that amount next year, with more than $6.4 million
expenses this year and just over $6.6 million next year, figures that
include $850,000 depreciation.
--And
remember the city's Redevelopment Agency the state dissolved in 2012?
Its property tax income from Savi Ranch-Hidden Hills and Town
Center-Imperial Highway project areas is handled by the council and
will total from $6-7 million, equal to expenditures.