- Public hearing to be held June 19th to consider Nephi’s tentative budget
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A public hearing will be held in Nephi to consider the tentative revised budget and the tentative budget for the coming fiscal year.
The hearing will be held on Tuesday, June 19, at 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
The final budget will then be adopted on Thursday, June 21, at a special council meeting also set for 7 p.m.
The up-coming fiscal year will end on June 30, 2008 and the final budget for this year, 2007, will end on June 30.
“State statute requires that all cities adopt a tentative budget,” said Randy McKnight, city administrator.
The budget serves as a work plan for the city during each fiscal year, July 1 through June 30.
“The tentative budget gives a picture of three years of history,” said McKnight.
The form the city uses lists the expenditures and revenues for the last three years so the council, and interested citizens, can compare what has been done in the past with the proposal for the coming year.
“The last column is the proposed budget for next year,” said McKnight. “The budget will change in the next couple of weeks.”
The budget is more than just a series of columns for revenues and expenditures because it reflects the wide variety of services and programs that are important to the taxpayer.
The budget adopted in June each year includes operating budgets for each department and the capital budget for the fiscal year.
Under state law and city ordinance a tentative budget must be submitted to the council at the first meeting in May of each year.
The council then holds a series of budget meetings with city departments to review the budget.
“The compensation, benefits and wages are not yet finalized, so when those are done, the actual budget may change from what you have before you tonight,” said McKnight.
Between early May and mid-June, the council considers budget issues, conducts public hearings and approves a budget. Upon approval, the monies are spent in accordance with the budget following standards and procedures found in local ordinances and state law.
The budget reflects the constant challenge to balance service demands with the ability of the taxpayers to pay for local government, and it recognizes the values and needs of employees and their role in the efficient delivery of services.
“Our utility department heads have been considering adopting an automated meter-reading system,” said McKnight.
Some current meters will be adapted for the system. Some of the older meters will need to be replaced. That decision will affect the budget for the coming year.
The tentative budget must contain some required elements and must be submitted on the forms approved by the office of the state auditor. After the tentative budget is presented to the council, the council adopts it as the tentative budget of the town and then begins to modifying and amending it.
This process can take place at one or more meetings including special meetings called for that purpose.
The tentative budget is a public document as soon as it is presented to the council.
At the public hearing any person interested must be allowed to speak on the budget. After the public hearing the council must adopt a budget.
After a budget is adopted, it must be filed in the office of the city auditor or recorder and a copy sent to the office of the state auditor within thirty days from adoption.
“Blair Painter (city clerk/recorder) and I are pretty conservative estimators,” said McKnight.
The procedure to ensure that a budget is not over expended is that the clerk/recorder is required to maintain the general books for each fund of the town and to pre-audit all claims and demands against the town before payment.
After final adoption, the budget is in effect for the fiscal year but is subject to later amendment. A copy of each adopted budget must be available to the public during all regular business hours of the town.
If it is necessary to increase the budget total of a fund, with the exception of the enterprise fund, a public hearing is required and the budget must be amended. The process for amending a budget is the same as the initial procedure required for adopting a budget.
“We are also considering a tentative revised budget during this process,” said McKnight.
If a city has a particularly good year and receives money in excess of necessary expenditures, it may accumulate a fund balance in the general fund for future years. The accumulation of the fund balance in the general fund may not exceed 75 percent of the total estimated revenue of the general fund for the next year.
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