3C, 2012 Proposed Final Budget and Tax Levy

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Memo City Council 2012 Proposed Final Budget and Tax Levy 8 $10,000 has been budgeted for a lease on the new copy machine. The old copy machine had been purchased six years ago and there was no lease in the previous budgets. The City's postage meter has an annual cost of $6,000 and was previously not included in the budget, it has now been added to the budget. The Government Buildings budget was reduced substantially to more accurately reflect costs for utilities. An amount was budgeted for the increased cost for the Ramsey County Maintenance Facility lease as the cold storage will be converted to heated storage. The net effect is a$28,933 decrease to this budget. The TCAAP Fund has been has been reclassified into a department in the General Fund, this eliminates the need for transfers from the General Fund to cover this activity and complies with the new accounting standards that will be discussed in a later agenda item. The Council will be asked to formally dissolve this fund at a future Council meeting. There is no Reserve/Contingency budgeted in the 2012 budget as proposed. Other miscellaneous adjustments include: an increase in the Mayor & Council budget for newsletter costs and training; increases in the Finance and Administrative Services budget for Springbrook software maintenance costs and IT services from Roseville; increase in the Streets budget for snowplowing overtime based on the previous two-year history; a reduction in emergency management costs; and other miscellaneous adjustments. Other Funds We have previously noted the changes to the EDA Fund as costs have been moved from the General Fund to the EDA Fund. Staff is also recommending a transfer of $65;000 from the PIR Fund for the Gateway signs. Due to new accounting standards that will be discussed in a later agenda item, several Special Revenue Funds are being reclassified, as part of this, Community Services Fund is being folded into the Public Safety Capital Fund. This is being done in part because of new accounting standards but also because the charitable gambling proceeds can only be used for public safety capital purchases, as a result, Council will be asked to formally dissolve this fund and move the balance to the Public Safety Capital Fund at a future Council meeting. Staff is proposing establishing Internal Service Funds for Technology, Risk Management, Central Garage and Equipment, and Engineering. Internal Service Funds function like Enterprise Funds except that their customers are primarily "internal" users, such as other City departments. To improve efficiencies, establishing internal service funds allow activities to be monitored in a single fund and then "chaxged back" to the user departments. This will allow better management control and increase efficiencies, for example, Public Works is comprised of Streets Maintenance, Parks Maintenance, Water, Sewer, and Surface Water Management. When costs are incurred for general maintenance and supplies, they are currently allocated and coded to all five departments making it hard to actually manage the costs and expenditures from a budget standpoint. Engineering can be done the same way with total costs for engineering being