Around the City
The leaves are starting to turn colors, the air is getting a little bit cooler, and pumpkin spice coffee creamer is back. It can all mean only one thing: Budget season is back.
As we get started with the budget process I wanted to take a moment to discuss the 2014 budget, and also make sure that you, the citizens of Caribou, are aware of the opportunities you have to be a part of the budgeting season.
First, let’s look at the 2014 budget numbers. For 2014 the total expense budget for Caribou was $8,698,999. Of that 21.9 percent was for Public Works, 17.2 percent was the Ambulance Department, 13.9 percent was the Fire Department and 7.5 percent was General Government. All that together equals 60.5 percent of the budget. Other Departments included the Recreation Department at 4.5 percent, the Parks Department was 1.6 percent, and the Library was 2.6 percent of the budget. Capital Improvements, money we put aside to be able to pay for larger purchases rather than borrow money, makes up 6.6 percent of our budget.
When you look at revenues, property taxes make up 45.9 percent of the revenue budget. Revenue sharing from the State makes up 6.1 percent. The majority of the rest of the revenues comes from fees that are charged for services. It is interesting to note that if the State were to fully fund revenue sharing, the City of Caribou would have taken in about $1,000,000 more in revenue sharing. That would have decreased the amount of revenue required from property taxes to 34.5 percent. Since 2008, the City of Caribou has lost about $3,750,000 in revenue sharing.
If you go online to our website, www.cariboumaine.org, you will see on the right hand side a link to the City budgets online from 2013, 2014, and the starting process for 2015. The page will be updated with each new budget report that is issued.
Since the new Charter was adopted by the citizens of Caribou in 2012, the budgeting season has been a very open and transparent process. The budget process starts with a report due out by September 15th. The next step in the budget is to have the first draft of next year’s budget out to the public by October 15th. Then there are three open forum meetings the public is invited to and encouraged to attend. Those meetings will be Oct. 16, 20 and 22, all of which will be held at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers. If you can’t make it to the meeting they will be broadcast on our local access channel, Channel 8.
The purpose of these meetings is to allow city department heads to present a written detailed expense budget report to both the City Council and citizens in a public forum where both the City Council and Caribou’s residents can ask questions and provide input to the city manager and each department head. You can ask questions, find out how all the budget numbers are derived at, and make comments and suggestions on the budget as well.
There are also regular City Council meetings scheduled for Oct. 27 and Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. As is the case with all City Council meetings, the public is welcome to attend and there is time set aside at the start of every meeting for citizens to present any thoughts, ideas, or concerns they may have to the Council. This isn’t limited to just the budget, but any topic a citizen may have. While the budget may not be on the agenda for these meetings, citizens can still attend and share their thoughts with the Council.
The next step in the process is to have a public hearing on the ensuing year’s budget. This public hearing will be held on Monday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m in the City Council Chambers. As with all public hearings, citizens can come and voice their concerns and comments to the Council at this time.
The final step in setting the expense budget will be Dec. 8, 2014 during the regular City Council meeting where the City Council will vote on the budget. Citizens are welcome to come and share any thoughts they have on the budget before the Council acts on it, or any other topics they may want to discuss.
There is certainly a lot of time, effort, and work that goes into creating a budget. Crafting a budget is not always easy but you, the citizens of Caribou, have done a fantastic job of ensuring your voice can be heard as part of the process by adopting the Charter that we have in place today. So I encourage you to be a part of the process as we move through the 2015 budgeting process.
Austin Bleess has been the city manager of Caribou since October 2012. He can be reached at 493-3324 x230 or via email at citymanager@cariboumaine.org.
