In its first report to the F.C. City Council tonight, the recently-established Long Range Financial Working Group (FWG) rushed a handful of revenue policy recommendations into play at the outset of the Council’s FY11 budget deliberations. A four-page, single-spaced report called on the City to retain a fund balance of 10 percent of its annual operating costs and to establish and enforce as more stringent set of fees and user charges for things such as water and sewer usage that will ensure that the actual cost of running the operations associated with them are fully covered by those fees and user charges.
The group also unveiled a financial budgeting model on Excel, developed by FWG member Tom Kaye, that allows for a lot of “tinkering” with budget options while showing their long-term consequences. It is a model that City Manager Wyatt Shields said will be available to all citizens on-line so that they can test their budget balancing ideas for their soundness from a long-range perspective.
