City in strong fiscal position – No Rate Increases or Services Cut
At its Monday, June 4 meeting, the East Grand Rapids City Commission unanimously agreed to adopt the budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
“We are very proud of the budget we’ve put together for this upcoming fiscal year,” Mayor Amna Seibold said. “There are no reduction in city services and no rate increases, which we know everyone will be pleased to hear. Our City is in a strong, healthy financial position that any community would be proud of.”
Highlights from the upcoming budget include:
- Total budget represents 12 different funds totaling $24.7 million
- Total capital expenditures across all funds totaling $2.9 million
- Total current debt issued for all funds equals $8.6 million
- Budgeted payroll includes 67 full-time and 12 part-time positions with a total salary budget of $5.6 million
- Property tax revenue represents 74 percent of general fund revenue, while state shared revenue represents 9 percent of general fund revenue
- Per the 2010 census, there are 3,818 households in the City of East Grand Rapids, which is expected to remain the same through 2019. The expenditure per household equals a total of $2,642 (General Fund).
- No rate changes are proposed for water and sewer in the upcoming year. The City plans to invest more than $1 million in infrastructure updates.
Millage rollback
Due to the Headlee Amendment and Proposal A, municipalities are required to roll back their millage when the annual growth on existing property is greater than the inflation rate. The City had overall taxable growth of 5.5 percent, which is higher than the 2.1 percent inflation rate so the millage will once again be rolled back.
For 2018 – 2019, the overall total income property revenue increase will be $254,000, including $66,000 from new construction and remodeling.
The millage rate was 15.0560 in 1997 is estimated to be 12.4331 in 2018, which accounts for more than two and a half mills being rolled back over the past 20 years.
Streets and sidewalks
In 2015, East Grand Rapids residents passed a ballot proposal to allow the City to collect two mills for street and sidewalk improvements. Since the passing, the City has worked aggressively to upgrade the nearly 50 miles of street and 80 miles of sidewalk within the City.
In the upcoming year, the millage will provide $1.2 million in funding for street and sidewalk projects and with an additional $1 million coming from the general fund and $1 million from the State of Michigan for operations and additional projects.
Officials say the City is in good shape for the next year and that best practices in budgeting and cost-saving methods have been implemented.
“We strive to maintain the highest level of services to our residents,” Seibold said. “Our team is skilled at finding ways to more efficiently perform these services without sacrificing quality or safety.
“I thank our staff for the many hours of work they put into developing this budget and to our City Commission for the thoughtful insights they provided into pulling our final budget together. We’ve developed another strong budget, which is key to building a community of choice.”
For more information on budgets in East Grand Rapids, click here.