Carson City budget talks set to start in earnest

Budget deliberations for next fiscal year begin in earnest Thursday as Carson City’s Board of Supervisors deals with a preliminary general fund figure of more than $65 million.

A special board meeting is set for 10 a.m. in the Community Center’s Sierra Room at East William and Roop streets, with agenda items almost entirely dealing with finance and budgeting. The next fiscal year begins July 1 and runs into mid-2015, so final decisions won’t come until later. Items Thursday dealing with the budget were broken into those involving utilities and everything else.

Because the board appointed a Utility Financial Oversight Committee, according to the agenda, “the budgets for the sewer, water and stormwater funds will be presented in a separate agenda item.” The Utility Financial Oversight Committee on March 15 met and reviewed those utility budgets, recommending approval of them based on policies that have been adopted by the board.

Finance Director Nick Providenti will provide much of the revenue and budget preview information for the board to consider after having drafted a tentative spending blueprint that is close to flat for the general fund. The general fund is the portion of spending undergirded mostly by city sales and property taxes. Providenti’s revenue projections anticipate a 3 percent or 4 percent boost in city sales tax, about a percentage-point rise in property taxes.

The preliminary general fund budget proposal is for $65.6 million, up just slightly from the fiscal year 2013-14 anticipated and revised spending figure of $65.4 million.

The all-funds FY 2014-15 figure is about $127 million. That includes not only the general fund spending, but federal funds and grants, enterprise funds such as those for utilities, and special revenue funds such as the Question 18 money from the quarter-cent sales tax approved in the 1990s for quality-of-life improvements.

Also on the agenda is work as the Redevelopment Authority to deal with that unit’s FY 2014-15 budget. The authority has the same membership as the board, though gavel leadership changes hands.

Another item on the board’s Thursday agenda is possible approval of an interlocal contract for welfare and support services involving Nevada’s First Judicial District Court, Carson City and Storey County.