Tis' The Season--Budget Season

For local governments May is budget season. A number of cities are presenting their budgets for the 2007-08 fiscal year (Mayor Billings' presents Provo's budget on a bus tour of the city). I'm sure you'll see a lot more news stories about city budgets as they are debated and finalized.

Today on KCPW's Midday Metro show Bill Anderson (South Salt Lake City Councilmember), Gary Hill (Park City budget officer), and myself discussed the state of local government finance with KCPW host Bryann Schott. If you are interested in the 20 minute podcast check here: KCPW discussion May 14th 2007.

So city council meetings aren't so bad, after all

Excellent column in the The Spectrum this weekend written by Steve Kiggins, Cedar City Bureau Chief. I keep telling people that local government finance really is an interesting issue that people should pay more attention to...sounds like Steve agrees. One quote from his column, "In the past 21 months, I've learned more about the world around me than I did in all my years as a sports reporter. That's because I've covered city council meetings, interviewed state, county and city leaders, studied subjects such as health care, taxes and education, opened my eyes to the issues and challenges around me....If you don't pay attention to city government, I urge you to start."

You can read the full column here.

On another note...how about those Jazz? Western Conference Finals here we come (am I jumping the gun?).

City Fiscal Conditions 2007

We know the State of Utah has a surplus of well over $1 billion, but what is the fiscal health of Utah's cities and towns? Each city and town is unique, which makes is difficult to assess budget health in the aggregate the way we evaluate state revenue and expenditures. In an attempt to better understand the fiscal state of municipal goverment we (ULCT) recently conducted a survey of municipal budget officers across the state of Utah.

The survey instrument used is patterned after a survey administered by the National League of Cities and adapted to address Utah's cities and towns. The survey asked respondents to assess if their city was better able or less able to address their budget needs this fiscal year versus the last. The survey also asked budget officers to measure the degree of impact a number of factors had on the budget process. Overall Utah's cities and towns are experiencing fiscal stability, led by the strong state economy, but that doesn't mean there aren't looming challenges (i.e. infrastructure needs and rising health care benefit costs). Click here to read Municipal Fiscal Conditions 2007.

I appreciate the input from staff at the University of Utah CPPA and a small group of city budget officers regarding the design of this instrument. Also, thank you to the 82 cities who responded.

What about expenses Tad?

According to a recent article in the Deseret News, written by Tad Walch (Utah County bureau chief) Utah's cities and towns are flush with cash. However, Tad does not once in his article mention the rising expenditures that are often linked to a growing economy and society. For example, with growth come increased infrastructure needs.

True, Utah's cities and towns are benefiting from a booming statewide economy (like the State govt) however, this strong economy is not occurring with static service needs. According to a recent Utah League of Cities and Towns survey responding cities indicated the following:

• 91% report an increase infrastructure need from FY05 to FY06
• 44% anticipate a significant increase of infrastructure spending needed FY07
• 86% report an increase cost of employee benefits for FY06
• 73% report increase service needs for new development for FY06

These statistics illustrate the challenges that many cities and towns are faced with. Can cities better address these challenges during good economic times? Definitely. But does that mean cities and towns are flush with cash? Definitely not.