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SIERRA VISTA — City staff members continue to wrestle with the budget and report they’re only about $100,000 away from balancing it for fiscal year 2009.
There should be a working, balanced budget in a week or so, according to city officials. And part of that plan will include an increase in ambulance service rates.
Further City Council work sessions will be held on the forthcoming budget next month.
Though the predicted 11 percent decrease in state shared revenues reflects less of a hit than originally expected, it still presents a challenge and will probably be much more of a pronounced decrease in the fiscal year after next, City Manager Chuck Potucek said during a work session with council members on Tuesday.
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The city projects a 2 percent growth in city sales tax revenue over fiscal year 2009, as well as a 5 percent increase in state income tax revenue sharing and a 7 percent decrease in auto licensing revenue.
Fiscal year 2009 begins July 1.
The council also will consider and likely vote on an ambulance rate increase next month. The city’s budget staff recommends the increase to make the city’s ambulance billing rates similar to those of the Fry Fire District and private emergency medical transport provider Arizona Ambulance.
Fry Fire District, with approval of its current pending proposal, will bill about $920, and Arizona Ambulance bills about $720. Assistant City Manager Mary Jacobs said the city currently bills just more than $500, and is seeking to raise that to about $720.
City Finance Manager Dave Felix said a “net cash-in, cash-out” loss of $1.4 million occurred during the 2008 fiscal year because of the relatively low municipal ambulance billing rates. The proposed rate increase would address that.
Usually a 2 to 3 percent annual raise in rates takes place for city ambulance rates, but for much more than that the city is required to petition the state, Felix said.
People on Medicaid, Medicare and Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System don’t pay these bills, and the difference in compensation is written off by the billing agency.
Arizona Ambulance has taken on most of the transports between Sierra Vista and Tucson, freeing up city staff and medic units.
Potucek said another reason for the proposed change is that the billing rate structure needs to be closer to adjacent agencies’ rates, to make automatic aid agreements more palatable. The average rate in Arizona is $723.
The Sierra Vista Fire Department also is planning a pilot program involving emergency medical transport, which would be an addition to the city’s budget. The program would include an EMS transport supervisor and six medical transport workers being hired to take care of inter-facility transport within Sierra Vista’s service area.
Fire Chief Randy Redmond said these contract positions should be enticing to staff of Arizona Ambulance and local reserve firefighter medics, and they will mean better ambulance service.
If the pilot project proves to be worthwhile, it will be kept in the budget in subsequent years, Potucek said.
Also in the 2009 budget year, a 3 percent raise for all city employees is planned, along with a 2 percent increase in the salary fund to address employee-pay compression.
The council’s strategic plan projects to be funded in the budget next year include Eddie Cyr Park’s phase one, Country Club Park and its nearby paths, the Garden Canyon Linear Park trailhead and overall design, the Veterans’ Memorial Park bandshell and Youth Center designs, and the Domingo Paiz Sports Complex Design project.
The two main capital improvement projects appropriated for next year will be the C. Reed Vance Police Building expansion project at about $6.5 million, and construction of city fire Station 3 at about $1.6 million. The fire station is currently being built.
A number of road improvement and detention basin projects throughout the city also are in the appropriations.
There is a $615,000 increase in fuel cost projections.
Major street reconstruction, road widening, bicycle and multiple-use recreational path project costs are projected at about $7 million.
A municipal revenue bond issue is being pursued for the construction of Eddie Cyr Park phase one, the police station expansion, the fire Station 3 construction and the Town and Country sewer interceptor, as well as a new 100-foot ladder truck for Station 3 and the Station 3 detention basin.
Potucek said the Town and Country sewer interceptor project will service the new hotels along Highway 92 and the new neighborhood coming online at the Oakmont subdivision. It is designed to handle the sewer capacity in the Town and Country neighborhood, if necessary, but will not be hooked up to that neighborhood.
The Town and Country neighborhood was built in the 1970s under county development code, before the neighborhood was annexed by the city, and the homes in it are currently on septic tanks.
Herald/Review reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.
Jake wrote on May 7, 2008 3:29 PM: