Only a couple of city residents were in attendance – along with the Escalon City Council and a variety of city staffers – at a budget workshop on Tuesday, May 17. The relatively brief session was hosted at the council chambers, 2060 McHenry Ave., and featured a presentation on the proposed spending plan along with a chance for council and public comments and questions.
City Manager Tammy Alcantor said the workshop lasted a little over an hour.
“We went through the whole presentation,” she said.
Operating revenues for the city’s General Fund for fiscal year 2016-17 are projected at just over $3.47 million and operating expenditures estimated at $3.16 million, leaving the city with a deficit of about $147,000 at year’s end.
“We are still projecting a small deficit in the operating costs,” Alcantor said.
But a healthy reserve will help cover that, with the city able to still keep close to $1.2 million in an operating budget reserve fund.
Major goals for the council and city manager this year include completing a study for developer impact fees and finalizing the McHenry Avenue lift statin location.
The new budget will take effect July 1, 2016 and run through June 30, 2017. The Tuesday night, May 17 session was the first of the public workshops, with another anticipated prior to adoption of the spending plan by the council.
The city’s total combined proposed annual budget for the fiscal year is $15,227,037. That includes the general fund, enterprise funds, capital projects, debt service funds, special revenue funds and reserve funds.
Public safety has the largest budget for appropriations, with 57.43 percent of the general fund budget in that category. Public Works and Development Services are both roughly 11 percent of the appropriations total.
Alcantor said they are looking at potential property now for the McHenry Avenue lift station project and were recently contacted by Senator Cathleen Galgiani’s office regarding the availability of state funds for some projects.
“We submitted an application for the Hogan Park parking project and we should find out in July or August if we received it,” Alcantor said of the grant funds.
