Nothing ‘crafty’ about Wasilla budget

Well, Wasilla is in the middle of its biennial budget put forth in 2012 for fiscal years 2013 and 2014.

This is the end of the first year review, and with that some changes are coming, along with some criticism of the proposed budget passed last year.

So together, let’s put a spyglass on this thing and go over the rudimentaries of government budgeting. Think of the city as a ship of state and the captain of that ship is Mom. Now Mom has to anticipate the amount of revenue, or dollars, that are going to be received into her purse each year. This is done by looking at past performance of the money stream. Remember, the bulk of Wasilla’s money to run the city comes from how much you folks spend on bread, milk, shoes, clothes and other consumer goods. Wasilla doesn’t have a property tax and we like it that way, but it depends on sales tax dollars.

So now Captain Mom has decided how much she can anticipate coming in, then she must decide how much it is going to cost to take her crew and get through a year. She has to first estimate all of the costs of running this enterprise, everything from how much gas, lights, heat, paint, asphalt for repairs, paychecks and medical benefits for labor and inflation, etc., are going to cost. She budgets and funds for that.

Mom has to look at her dependents ,or “crew,” in that process and what their needs are to function. It must be noted that there are 14 funds that must, by federal law, be filled by government accounting standards before Mom does anything. She has no choice. It’s the law.

Then Mom has her own “egg,” if you will, cut into four pieces that she needs to deal with — things like the Restricted Fund (such as pre-paids, inventory); and what’s called the Unassigned Fund, which is the 60 percent of next year’s projected costs to operate in the event of a collapse, disaster or her boat sinks and she loses everything. Then there is the Assigned Fund directed by the city council (land bank, paid time off, cash outs, etc.). Finally, she has the Committed Fund set by the city council above and beyond the six months to survive above the 60 percent talked about for future capital improvements.

At this time there is $1.4 million in this fund, or “savings account,” and the $550,000 bandied about comes from this cash. It’s not a deficit; it is from fund reserves. Deficit is when Mom’s spending is greater than her paychecks, which is simply not the case in Wasilla. In fact, Wasilla has a total of $18.4 million cash available. Not bad, Mom.

The problem is the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center. For those who remember, that’s the project where by 20 votes the residents of Wasilla voted to raise a half-percent sales tax to build the place. The council at the time, which included Councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, in support of the project, placed the complex into an enterprise fund category. As such, the thought was that it will make so much money it will pay for itself.

Nope, it doesn’t. And nope, it will always struggle with making money. This is one of Mom’s dependents that needs help. As a simple voter in Wasilla in that era, I voted against the project and have never made a secret of that fact. But trying to make it pay, we have pushed for.

The only way to look at that sports arena is that it is a “quality of life” facility for the whole community. Remember, in order to stay competitive for business such as the Christmas Friendship Dinner, hockey users, soccer users, home shows, gun shows, boat shows, craft shows — you name it — the rental charge has to be such that people and organizations are attracted to it and use it. Hence, rental revenue comes in to the city, but that is not enough to make the place pay for itself.

Another way to view it beyond “quality of life” is as an economic driver. By that, as evidenced this past weekend with the youth wrestling tournament, the parking lot was full, campers were in full force, the place was used and crowded, hotel rooms were full, restaurant business increased, pizzas and hamburgers were devoured and many other items were purchased in Wasilla, and all of these folks put money into the sales tax stream for the city.

And these “quality of life” and activities are good. If Mom, or again the city of Wasilla, was in “deficit” spending, then how is it we again took another 3.22 percent out of the FY2014 budget before it was presented to the city council for a total of $147,917? No one has been laid off, services haven’t decreased (and in fact, Wasilla is again hiring the park rangers, extra hands at the museum, clean-up people, parks groomers and flower people for the summer), and all for an expected quality of life here and additional public safety in the parks for the kids.

Yet, the budget is balanced and there is some money left over, plus all of the funds mentioned before are filled. Since 2008, the city has grown by five more employees, but how did that happen, you may ask? Well, one position was created by eliminating two prior positions and saved about $22,000 to the city in the re-organization, hence we eliminated one. Now we are down to four positions created overall. Two other positions were created in the police dispatch center, but these two jobs are paid for directly by Alaska State Troopers and it isn’t grant money; AST is funding the jobs because they need them in there to handle their calls. One position was to general administration to deal with the increased inquiries, phone calls, walk-ins and other tasks to better serve the fastest growing city in Alaska. The last position was in the City Clerk’s Office adding another deputy clerk, but that isn’t the administration’s person. She belongs to the city council on its budget as directed by the council.

So, out of the four-person growth in personnel, the two positions funded by you, the Wasilla sales tax payer, are one for the city council and one for administration. The jump in increased personnel in this city was from 2003 to early 2008 with 44 positions added. A big chunk of that number was when the police, under prior administrations and the then city council, created a dispatch center here in town to serve the Wasilla police and the state troopers.

The confusion may be that you can’t cross up the financial statement with the cash budget found on pages 44-45 of the “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” (CAFR) where the city is actually ahead after everything was taken care of by Captain Mom by almost $100,000.

This boat is sailing on calm waters. Mom is fed, the crew is fed and services are provided to you on a 2 percent sales tax. Again, there is no deficit and Wasilla is the envy of the state — no deficit spending, no layoffs, services are provided, no property tax imposed by the city. We invite inquiries concerning the CAFR at City Hall or the current proposed budget. Call, ask, pull it up on the website, take a look for yourself. When the budget was crafted there wasn’t anything crafty about it. It is an open process, a continuing process and a transparent process.

Verne Rupright has been Wasilla mayor since 2008.