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Department Approval Item Description �:i � � REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Date: July 13, 2015 Item No.: 15.a City Manager Approval Receive the 2016 City Manager Recommended Budget BACKGROUND Over the past several months, the City has held a series of discussions as part of the 2016 Budget Process. Key discussions in the process included: ❖ Overview of Departmental Budget Priorities, Issues, & Challenges (�1ay 27, .Iune 1, 2015) ❖ Discussion on the 2015 City Council Budget Goals & Priorities (.Iune 15, 2015) These discussions, along with revised analysis of financial trends, review of service-level requirements, and public input on budget priorities have been incorporated into the 2016 City Manager Recommended Budget included herein. A summary of the Recommended Budget is presented below. 2016 City Manager Recommended Budget The City Council has expressed a strong desire to minimize the impact to the property taxpayer as we consider the 2016 Budget. With the increasing demand and need for services and programs provided by the City and acknowledging the City Council's desire for a minimal levy increase, the 2016 City Manager Recommended Budget has been created to rely less on property tax levy to fund existing and future City services and programs. To that end, the proposed 2016 budget is crafted to lessen the levy impact by doing the following: • Focusing on growing revenues through expansion of business enterprises • Leveraging partnerships to reduce costs for the City while increasing productivity • Strategic use of reserve funds • Reorganization to more efficiently utilize levy dollars and lessen future costs. �� By focusing on these strategies, it is believed that over time, reliance on the tax levy can be reduced. Currently, approximately 35% of the budget is funded through the property tax levy. Ideally, the City's goal should be to reduce the levy dependence to no more than one-third of our budget. This cannot be done overnight and will require structural changes on how our services and programs are carried out. �� Therefore as part of the proposed 2016 City Manager Recommended Budget, the City Council will see strategic investment (primarily of non-levy funds) in personnel to increase non tax-levy revenue, � increased investment to leverage existing partnerships that will lower costs and increase productivity � for the organization, and the planned use of reserves. The Recommended 2016 Budget is $52,729,290, an increase of $684,000 or 1.3%. A citywide budget Page 1 of 5