2015_Approved Budget and CIP.pdf

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City of Roseville — 2015 Budget Letter of Transmittal December 8, 2014 To the Mayor and City Council, Enclosed is the 2015 City Budget as prepared by City Staff, in accordance with City Council direction. The 2015 Budget culminates a years' worth of planning, evaluation, and input from the City Council, advisory commissions, citizens and staff. Great effort has been taken to ensure that the City's core services are funded in a manner that preserves the greatest value to the community. In addition, steps have been taken to account for the changing trends and impacts that will affect both next year's and future year's budgets. For 2015, the City continued its budgeting approach that is designed to better equate service levels with spending decisions. This process was also designed to give greater transparency on where financial resources are allocated. In addition, it ensures that the programs and services that were more highly desired by the community receive sufficient funding. This process included over a dozen public meetings held for the purposes of soliciting input and to gauge citizen reaction to proposed service offerings - a specific objective outlined in the City's Imagine Roseville 2025 (IR2025) long-term visioning process. For 2015, the City recognized a strengthening tax base with overall market values up 5%. The residential tax base was particularly strong with the median-valued home increasing in value by 11 %. Given that residential market values increased faster than other property types, there was a temporary shift in overall tax burden from non-residential to residential properties in 2015. As a result, the City decided to mitigate this impact by drawing from excess cash reserves in lieu of property tax increases. This allowed for a limited tax increase of only 1.5%. Even with this action, overall cash reserve levels remain strong and are consistent with Council-adopted policies and other AAA credit rated municipalities. Overall budget funding sources remained steady for 2015. While interest earnings and some state-aids are expected to decline, they are generally offset by higher license fees and building permits in addition to the tax increase noted above. Despite an overall strengthening in the City's financial condition during the past few years, the City eXpects to face a few financial challenges far 2015 and beyond. They include: •:� Continuing to strengthen the City's asset replacement funding mechanisms ❖ Achieving long-term financial sustainability for core services and programs ❖ Establishing funding for new initiatives, including those identified in IR2025. These impacts are addressed in greater detail below. 1