Geneva budget shows flat income, increasing expenses

If there is economic improvement in sight, Geneva's not counting on it for the 2010-11 budget.

Instead, city officials expect to receive 15 percent less in state income tax receipts and little increase, if any, in property and sales tax.

The general fund's budget - which pays for city administration, streets, community development, police and fire departments - calls for expenses of $15.88 million, an increase of 10 percent over the projected 2009-10 actual expenditures.

Property taxes would go up less than 1 percent.

The city council will have a public hearing on the budget April 19, then vote on its adoption later that evening. The fiscal year starts May 1.

Major projects and purchases of note in the general fund:

• The budget, again, puts off replacing a 21-year-old fire engine that was due to be cut from the fleet four years ago. The estimated cost of a new fire engine is $510,000. Repairs for the engine consumed half of the department's vehicle maintenance budget in fiscal year 2007. In the last two years, it has had two electrical fires, and its rear springs snapped.

• It calls for rebuilding half of the Manchester Course alley at a cost of $300,000. Residents complained last year when the project was pulled out of the 2009-10 budget. The asphalt alley hasn't been repaved (other than cold-patching) in more than 20 years, and is a bumpy, hole-filled mess. The other half of the road would be completed with funds from the following year's budget.

• The city may begin doing some work in-house to make a proposed new bike trail along a former railroad right of way on the west side of downtown, near the Burgess-Norton factory.

• The budget also includes raises of up to 2 percent for nonunion employees. The raises are merit-based, not automatic, and would be given upon review of the employee's work performance the past year. This measure was nearly eliminated from the budget at a city council workshop March 15, with some aldermen arguing that as much as they appreciated the work of employees (and the pay cuts they took this year), they could not support increasing pay after laying off workers and while their constituents in the private sector are unemployed. Mayor Kevin Burns broke a tie, voting in favor of the raises. A study by the city shows that the average raise being given by 17 area communities is 2.11 percent.

The city is asking its two unionized groups, firefighters and electrical department workers, to again forego raises guaranteed to them in their contracts.

Besides the general fund, the city has funds for water, electricity, wastewater, its cemeteries, special service areas, retirement fund contributions, tree replacement and more.