Cedar Rapids proposes ‘hold the line’ budget

CEDAR RAPIDS - Ambroz Recreation Center will close next fiscal year as the new Northwest Recreation Center opens, according to a proposed fiscal 2017 budget presented Thursday.

Staff and services at Ambroz - which houses youth sports, older adults activities and cultural programs - would relocate to the $4.9 million recreation center built next to and on the site of the Harrison Elementary School, 1310 11th St NW.

The new center is due to open in July. The city would work with the Historic Preservation Commission to protect the 1902-built Ambroz, which was once the Buchanan School, until determining a future use, said City Manager Jeffrey Pomeranz.

The budget proposal now goes to the City Council for its consideration. Once approved, it takes effect July 1.

Other highlights of the proposal include a slight decrease in residential and commercial property tax rates and a library funding level that would require significant cuts.

'There's not a lot of extra money to expand due to slow growth,” Pomeranz said in a presentation to City Council. 'This is a pretty ‘hold the line' budget. There's not a lot of extra initiatives.”

In the proposal, the general fund would increase $3.2 million, or 3 percent, to $120 million. A slight - .52 percent - increase in the taxable value of properties, mostly residential, was the main contributor to the budget growth.

Pomeranz said the city is in a strong financial position, and noted nearly $40 million, or about 33 percent of revenue, will go into reserves.

Homeowners should be pleased property tax rates will decline slightly, although they may wind up paying slightly more depending on how much their assessed value increased. The city's residential property tax levy would hold steady for the eighth year at $15.22 per $1,000 of value, but a state formula to rollback taxes requires homeowners pay only 55.63 percent of their bill, down slightly from 55.73 percent in 2016.

Commercial properties are starting to rack up gains in rollbacks. Commercial properties traditionally have paid 100 percent of their bill, but after a law change they paid 95 percent last year will pay 90 percent this year.

It will be a dent in the city's pocketbook, but the state is providing $3.8 million to offset the losses. It is unclear if the offset will continue in 2018, which is a concern, Pomeranz said.

A state reclassification of rental housing from the higher commercial property tax rate to the lower cost residential property rate represents a $445,859 budget hit for the city. The state is not backfilling that, which is a cut the city will have to learn to live with as the losses grow in future budget years.

A public hearing on the budget is expected to be held March 8.

Key items include:

' The library must cut its budget by $393,052 after a referendum for a tax levy failed in November.

Costs are being cut by closing an hour earlier Monday to Thursday, closing the Ladd Library on Saturdays and the downtown library on Sundays and reducing managers from seven to four. Changes are set to take effect March 28, said Dara Schmidt, the library director.

'Our budget is being reduced, but we have higher demand than ever before,” she said.

' Utility fees for water, wastewater treatment and sanitary sewer, storm sewer, solid waste, recycling and yard waste would go up 5.1 percent, or about $50.76, for a typical customers that uses 10 units of water and 10 units of sewer. This comes after a 2.1 percent increase in 2016, which was the smallest increase in 17 years.

' Proceeds from automated traffic enforcement cameras, $3 million, will continue to be budgeted.

The cameras, which automatically generate tickets for speeders, are at the center of a lawsuit between several cities, including Cedar Rapids, and the Iowa Department of Transportation. The Iowa DOT ordered multiple camera locations across the state be moved or taken down, but Cedar Rapids and other cities contended it is a local issue and refused to comply.

If Cedar Rapids loses the case, a chance exists the city would have to reimburse some of the revenue.

The matter was not discussed Thursday at length, but the possible loss of traffic camera revenue, along with the loss of other contingencies such as the offset of the commercial property tax rollback, were noted as concerns for future budgets.

' For city staffing, $3.9 million is allocated for raises and benefit increases, but with a decrease of four full-time-equivalent positions.