Dear Neighbors,
This coming Monday, the City Council will convene its second of three meetings for the month of June. This coming Monday, we will be voting on City Commission and Board appointments. For some of these appointments, the Mayor has a vote. These will be done at a meeting of the City Council with the Mayor presiding. There are other appointments where only the members of the Council vote. At some point during the evening, we will vote on all these appointments. The City’s commissions and boards are a vital aspect of our governance process and our City is enriched by their service.
The first item on our agenda is a presentation on quality of life issues with the University of Vermont. We have two remaining items on our agenda. The first is a resolution authorizing the City to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the terms of audit procedures in the Vehicle for Hire Ordinance.
The main focus of the evening, and perhaps the most important function of the Council is the annual approval of the Mayor’s Recommended budget. By City Charter, the Mayor presents a budget to the Council. The Board of Finance offers input as do other Councilors through budget meetings over the past month. There are seven budget resolutions. We must approve not only the annual operating General Fund budget, special revenue fund budget and enterprise fund budgets but also the capital project budget, the annual tax assessment, the approval of various loans, grant anticipation notes for the Airport (due to timing issues with grants that come to the Airport from the Federal government), public improvement bonds and the capital borrowing for the DPW Water division.
This year’s budget provides a generous infusion of progress in terms of not only continuing to strengthen our financial strength but also progress in improvements to our City’s goal of enhancing our infrastructure, our commitment to public safety and a number of other areas that important to our community. The budget funds improvements to the Library, a tremendous community resource, as well as our commitment to innovation and technological advances.
In terms of our financial strength, the budget includes a reduction of a half penny in our municipal tax rate. This is due to the rather unprecedented two step increase in our credit rating by Moody’s earlier this year. The first step in this journey of reversing our credit rating from its low point in 2010 was the Fiscal Stability Bond overwhelmingly approved by the voters of Burlington in the fall of 2012. The other reason for the reduction in the recommended tax rate is pension savings. For the first time in many years, the City’s share of pension costs is unchanged from the last fiscal year.
There has been discussion by several Councilors to reduce our tax rate further by a half penny to a full penny. Such a decrease would save the average homeowner between $12 and 24 a year or $1 to 2 a month. I do not see this as a prudent way to honor the obligation we have as Councilors to do our best for the City’s finances. If we do not invest in public safety, our infrastructure and our City’s resources, if we do not continue to build our Fund Balance which is part of the reason for our increase in our credit rating and if we do not invest in innovation which has proven in the recent past to end up saving us money, if we do not take these important steps and others provided for in the budget, we move backwards. These investments are worth much more to each of us than $1 or 2 a month. For today and well into our future.
I am honored to join the Mayor as a co-sponsor of the budget resolutions in support of the Mayor’s recommended budget and hope my colleagues on the Council will support the budget as presented as well.
Following these items, we will have committee reports, updates from any Councilor on City affairs and comments from the Mayor.
As with all Council meetings, please keep in mind that you are always welcome to come and speak to the Council on any subject you wish during our Public Forum which begins at 7:30pm. Clickable agenda items can be found on the City's website: https://www.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/Public All Council meetings are televised live on BT Channel 317 and streamed live to your computer or phone.
As always, I welcome your questions and concerns. Please be in touch over the weekend and on Monday.
My best,
Karen
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