Budget balanced for next two years

Coronado has passed a balanced, two-year general fund budget that city officials say maintains essential services and programs despite an uncertain economy and declining revenues. City officials say if the state succeeds in borrowing or taking funds from cities as proposed to help close a nearly $25 billion deficit, they have plans in place to handle the impacts, but they will be felt. The City Council unanimously approved the 2009-10, 2010-11 budgets last week. The 2009-10 spending plan totals $37.3 million. The proposed 2010-11 budget is $37.8 million. The fiscal year begins July 1. Costs have been contained or reduced wherever possible to help balance the budget, which contains no new programs or services, city officials said. “This is a no-frills budget,” said Leslie Suelter, Coronado’s director of administrative services. “Programs and services are at current levels. There is no increase in staffing, no major programmatic changes anywhere.” Coronado projects that revenues will exceed expenses by $160,000 in 2009-10. However, that is significantly lower than in recent years when that gap was several million dollars. The decrease reflects declining revenue. Long-term projections show an operating deficit of just under $400,000 beginning in 2012-13. Similar projections are shown for subsequent years. “The projections show that we have stagnant growth in property and hotel tax while operating expenses continue to grow,” Suelter said. The state budget remains uncertain. Coronado is waiting for the State of California to finalize its spending plan. “We have a balanced budget, but that could change any day,” Suelter said. Proposals call for the state to borrow local property taxes and take gasoline-tax revenues. If the state follows through, city officials propose covering some of those losses out of the general fund reserve, which has $36.8 million. Read the entire Union Tribune article here.