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During a meeting of the Winslow City Council last week, the tentative budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 was approved in the absence of council member Judy Howell. Council member Marshal Losey moved to adopt the tentative budget after the removal of a $10 fee.
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He said, “I would like to strike the $10 fee for use of the transfer station. I am afraid that if we start charging our local residents, we are going to end up with a lot more wildcat dumping.”
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Vice Mayor Bob Schlesinger agreed. “We seem to be charging for everything now, with McHood Park and everything. It seems like soon we will be charging a fee for racquetball. I would agree that we remove the fee for pickup loads to the transfer station for our local residents.”
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Winslow City Manager John Barkley presented the budget to the council. “We had a lot of good budget discussions this year, starting in the winter when I first got here. I have gotten a lot of guidance from the very solid, world class professionals that work here. We have a lot of people here who are very interested in doing the right thing with the taxpayer dollar.”
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Barkley continued, “We built this thing from the ground up, we knocked it down and built it back up. I asked all of my directors to consider a 95 percent budget for 2020 and most of them came in with that target and that gave us a good foundation.”
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As mentioned in the public work session held May 7, two accounting changes took place during the budget process. The first was the separation of grant funds from the general fund. This, according to Barkley, will lead to more efficient tracking of public monies. The second accounting change was the separation of the parks department from the facilities department. This is an accounting change only. “The bottom line does not change,” said Barkley.
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“Our property tax is limited by the Arizona Constitution to two percent a year. If the tax levy, excluding new construction, is greater than the levy amount in the previous year, you need to comply with the advertising requirements for the truth in taxation. That is what we will do this year because our overall net assessed valuation citywide has increased. So, while it shows we are lowering the proposed tax levy, it will create a situation where we will derive additional property tax revenue in fiscal year 2020. So we will have the hearing that is required by the state and move forward with that revenue source.”
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Barkley was explaining the reflection of an approximate $6,500 increase in property tax revenue for the city.
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Other revenue streams include: State shared revenue, generated by state sales tax; city sales tax; Winslow’s bed tax, generated by hotels, restaurants and bars; franchise tax; and fees and permits.
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The total revenues projected for Winslow in fiscal year 2020 is $27.6 million, an increase over fiscal year 2019 of $2.4 million.
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Expenditures for the City of Winslow will include a $557,000 increase in spending in the police department. An emphasis on public safety has been a large part of the mayor’s agenda since taking office. “We need to invest in our police department and get more patrol personnel on the ground,” said Mayor Tom McCauley.
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Total expenditures for the City of Winslow are projected to equal nearly $30.8 million. That is a $4.6 million increase from the actualized expenditures last year. “I don’t expect us to spend as much as we have budgeted,” said Barkley, “but I also don’t expect the revenues to be quite up where we expected them.”
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Barkley said, “There are 10 departments that are proposing to spend less of the budget than they did last year. I really appreciate that.”
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Transparency, according to Barkley, is important in municipal finance. “We have partnered with OpenGov. Our citizens have the opportunity to visit our website and get seamless, real time information and we are very proud of that. From a practical standpoint, we have some trouble shooting to do having to do with our website, but it is available for our citizens to see at any time.”
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The City of Winslow website is www.winslowaz.gov. Financial documents can be accessed by using the drop-down menu beneath the department heading and choosing finance/utilities. The budget is also available for viewing from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday at City Hall, located at 21 N. Williamson Ave.
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