Budget 101

[Music] how does the city decide how much money to spend and on what the city gets its money from three sources grants usually from the state or federal government fees things you pay for directly and taxes our sales and use tax plus a little bit of property tax grants are reserved for specific purposes such as community development block grants that assist in affordable housing or federal transportation administration grants that enhance our public transportation when you pay a fee that money goes directly to fund that program for example paying your utility bill funds the services that keep the lights on and a night at the theater goes to the lincoln center to pay for programming similar to grants some taxes are reserved for specific areas such as our natural areas tax but most are directed to our discretionary budget or general fund which is used to pay for all kinds of city services it includes parks and playgrounds traffic lights and neighborhood programs it also funds police and fire and programs that support businesses and the environment the general fund even includes internal city systems like hr and it that help make it all run so how do we decide where to spend it for 15 years the city has used a process called budgeting for outcomes which directs funds to specific programs and services to achieve specific community outcomes each outcome area such as culture and recreation or economic health have specific objectives and performance measures and every funded budget item has to impact at least one of those things these come directly from the strategic plan which we update every two years through extensive community engagement to make sure that what we're planning to do actually reflects what the community wants us to do what if the city can't fund everything we usually can't in each outcome the programs and services are prioritized and then we fund them until the money runs out by law the city has to have a balanced budget when the economy is good and revenue is higher we can fund more services for the community when revenue goes down we have to stop spending sooner and can't offer as many of those services and if something serious happens like an economic downturn or recession we may even have to stop providing certain programs and services that we can't afford anymore because of the sharp decline in sales tax revenue and the continued uncertainty around covet 19 the city is planning a one-year budget for 2022 we're going to have to make some hard choices and may need to reduce or eliminate some services in order to balance next year's budget so we want to hear from you throughout the process staff is creating the recommended budget which will go to city council in september then they'll review it and make changes before final adoption in november you can join the process to share your priorities and weigh in on the trade-offs visit com forward ourcity.fcgov.com 2022 budget for current engagement opportunities

Channel: City of Fort Collins

Views: 137

Rating: 3 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 770bVriQT98

Length: 2min 59sec (179 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 22 2021