The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Reserves remain strong
The Crested Butte budget for next year is close to being finalized. The budget remains tight but ends with a $3,207,963 reserve in the general fund that gives the town room to breathe. That, plus some recent increase in summer sales tax, appears to put the town on decent financial footing for 2013. The Town Council will look at the first reading of the budget at the November 19 council meeting and plan to adopt it officially at the December 3 meeting.
As part of the budget, the council approved grant requests for local non-profit organizations. The council okayed about $46,000 out of $119,000 requested in public service grants. Some of the original requests were awarded but financed out of other budget funds.
The council worked off recommendations of a council subcommittee: the awards range from $500 for the Crested Butte Avalanche Center and Crested Butte Wildflower Festival to thousands of dollars for places, events, and services like the local museum, the Crested Butte Arts Festival, bus service to the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab, the Nordic Council and the Center for the Arts.
The council will also be helping to fund the Late Night Taxi, Butte Bucks and the Songwriter’s Festival. The Office for Resource Efficiency was asked to come back with its $7,500 request during the spring grant cycle.
The council will continue a philosophical debate over how to fund certain operational requests for activities like the Nordic grooming on the Town Ranch. Some on the council would like to see an annual line item in the budget. Others feel the town has spent a lot of time “weaning” the non-profits off the town rolls and want to see continued grant requests.
For the first time ever, the council included a budget item for marketing: $7,000 was set aside specifically for marketing winter events in conjunction with Mt. Crested Butte. The council hopes to attract some private business donations to expand the marketing fund although no specific events are on the horizon for funding.
The council did continue its practice of the previous two years and allocated $25,000 to go toward the USA Pro Challenge bike race that rolls through the valley in August. Local volunteers are preparing a request to receive a stage of the 2013 race. That comes with significant costs but council representatives stated they feel the trade-off in exposure is a good one.
As always, the issue of raises and salaries for staff and council is a discussion during the budgeting process. The council is planning to allocate money for merit raises for some of the staff as part of next year’s budget. Salaries, wages and benefits comprise 68 percent of the general fund, or $1,954,712.
At the legislative level, current council members cannot vote themselves a raise but they can budget for future councils to receive more money—and they are doing that. Currently council representatives receive $300 a month, while the mayor rakes in $600. As part of the 2013 budget, the council is looking at adding $100 to the councilmembers’ monthly salary and $200 a month more for the mayor. The last council raise was in 1999.
Councilperson John Wirsing said a council raise should be the last of any increase to be approved for the budget. “But it may help encourage some people to run,” he said. “It helps the self-employed and hourly people. Otherwise, it will end up just being retirees and trust-funders sitting up here.” The rest of the council agreed and the raise will likely be part of future budgets.
The water and sewer budget will be set at $1,592,883 and will not result in any rate increases. The general capital budget is always a tight fit but that will come in at $2,385,237. No major projects without outside grant funding are planned for 2013 but there will be some capital improvements in the form of a new dump truck, a police car and upgrade to the town hall heating system.
The major projects online for next year that come with help from outside grants are the continued renovation of the Depot building, and the Verzuh Recreation Path extension. The capital budget will still have an estimated reserve of $1,713,122.
The council hopes to have the budget passed in early December.
