The City of Seaford passes a $73 million budget, with no increase in electric rates, but modest hikes in property taxes, and water and sewer fees.
City Manager Charles Anderson presented the final budget to the City Council for a vote on Monday, after two budget work sessions in May where council members expressed dismay over what was initially a $1.6 million gap in the budget. More tweaking from staff got that shortfall down to just under $1 million.
One bright spot in the budget is the lack of an increase in electricity rates, something other cities and towns have leaned on to balance their budget in a challenging economic environment. Anderson said the electric fund can support going without a rate hike.
“Council is aware and pushed hard not to do an electric rate increase this year,” Anderson said. “So that's good news that the revenue is holding up and that's really based on a lot of customer growth.”
In fact, the city will be drawing on the electric fund to transfer some $3.3 million to the city’s coffers to help meet its budget, along with nearly $2.9 million in transfers from the city’s sewer fund and around $392,000 from its water fund.
“We're leaning on all our enterprise funds to try to help fund those general fund projects,” Anderson said.
Still, in order to meet its spending targets for the next fiscal year, Seaford residents will see higher numbers on their property tax, water, and sewer bills. The tax rate is going up by a small amount, Anderson noted.
“The tax rate currently this last budget year is 34 cents per $100 of assessed value. Proposed in this budget is 36 cents per $100 or a 5.88% increase,” Anderson explained. “This would result in a projected $164,000 revenue increase in the tax line item.”
Residents would also see 2.5% increases in water and sewer fees.
Anderson stressed that, for the most part, spending is on a par with the current year, with the exception of spending on the police department.
“Pretty much everything is static except the push that's been put on in the police department to add personnel,” Anderson said. “And along with that comes other expenses - vehicles, things of that nature.”
Getting the city’s police force up to full strength has been a priority for both council members and Police Chief Marshall Craft, who introduced four new officers at Tuesday’s meeting.
The new budget also includes two new positions - an additional IT specialist and an assistant city manager with a projected salary of $114,000 - $183,000. The budget raises pay for city employees at a base rate of 3% with up to 2% more for exceptional performance.
Despite budget cutting from city staff and increases in taxes and fees, the projected revenue still falls short of the budget’s $73 million in spending. The approximately $999,000 shortfall will be made up by dipping into the city’s reserve funds.
Council members passed the budget unanimously and with little discussion.
