KAYSVILLE—The council gathers at the beginning of each year to review and discuss plans for the upcoming year, said City Manager Shayne Scott. “More specifically, to look at where the city is in the current budget and what to expect going into the next fiscal year.”

At the meeting, Finance Director Dean Storey presented a general report of city finances, including financial challenges that the city already knows will be faced (finishing FY 2023 and into FY 2024). He said during this last year, several funds were moved or renamed to create more transparency. He reviewed the city’s Enterprise Funds and how they work and which of the city’s operating costs in the Enterprise Fund are showing a depreciation. He said some of the cash flows within these Enterprise Funds are restricted.

Assistant Finance Director Levi Ball reviewed a summarized Interim Financial Report from July 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022. Storey said that for the 2023 Fiscal Year budget, the council decided to transfer a significant amount of fund balance to balance the budget. He said the hope is for additional revenue to come this year, but they do not have any year-to-date actuals yet. He said although the sales tax revenue numbers seem to be staying strong, they will most likely need to use fund balance again this year in order to balance the current year budget. 

The council expressed concern regarding balancing the budget, continuing to utilize the fund balance, and the potential need for another tax increase. Scott said departments had been asked not to hire any new positions over the last year, and it is likely that will need to be the case for another year. He said at the same time, they also need to discuss compensation and/or another cost-of-living increase for the employees. Scott said inflation has impacted the city budget and there is the need to take into account that inflation has increased the cost of most things. He said he is confident in what city staff has been doing to try to cut costs, and department heads already present the minimum of what they need to operate.

Scott said there has recently been a drastic increase in utility costs. He said in the last five years, the city has spent money from the Electric Enterprise Fund in order to cover the cost of installing the AMI meters throughout the city. Storey said the AMI metering project was classified as an operating expense rather than a capital expense. He discussed Power Enterprise Funds and said a lot has happened in the last 90 days regarding the cost of power resources; the cost of power has been significantly higher and therefore the city is paying more for power than they are receiving for it. The city council recently voted to implement a power rate increase effective March 1, 2023 due to this crisis situation and the need to address the power budget deficit. Scott said that the city only has so much money in reserve and cannot afford to cover the gap in resource costs forever.

“As we are trying to develop what we want for our city, the council needs to consider what kind of businesses we can bring to our city to help to increase revenue in our city,” Mayor Tamara Tran said. Councilmember Blackham said that he feels that the city has had very little development within the city in the last year and he would like to see the city be able to live within its means. 

Scott gave an update on the RAMP tax program and said that the city is receiving more income from the RAMP tax than originally anticipated. The council discussed upcoming city projects. Storey said some capital improvements need to be completed soon, including what to do with the old library building, and installing a new roof on the operations center if they do not build a new facility there. 

Tran said she would like to see the city focus on improving infrastructure where needed and consider what they would like the city to look like in the future, including economic development. She asked the council if they had any priorities or goals for the city, and if there was anything they would like to see happen in the city. Comments included: more revitalization of commercial areas; review of the City Land Use Code; ensure that higher density housing developments be required to have a certain amount of designated visitor parking; doing more to improve roads and sidewalks within the city; the city catch up financially by keeping the budget the same for the upcoming year; any necessary expenditures be kept within the FY 2023 budget amount; review of project priorities; and implementing uniform requirements on property redevelopment along 200 North. 

The city council will be holding a Council Retreat this month to begin to review and have further detailed discussion of the FY 2024 budget. It is scheduled for the council to adopt the tentative budgets in May, and that is when they will become available for the public to review. The council will hold a public hearing on June 1, 2023, and could potentially adopt the final budget by mid-June, should the council choose not to hold a Truth and Taxation hearing. If a Truth in Taxation hearing is held, it will be held at the beginning of August prior to the final budget being approved. λ