Budget shortfall widens

By KEILA SZPALLER of the Missoulian

2008/8/14

It's time to trim.

An apparent but unexpected city budget shortfall has grown from

$250,000 to $367,000, and finance director Brentt Ramharter said the
city needs to close the gap soon.

“We're reaching a point of no return very quickly,” Ramharter said

Wednesday.

He said the urgency comes because by early to mid-September,

Missoula County needs to know the city's approved tax levels.

At a budget committee meeting Wednesday, Mayor John Engen

recommended a bump in property taxes to make up the difference.
Missoula City Council members didn't adopt the mayor's plan and
some called for budget cuts.

The conservatives called for the deepest cuts - and the liberals asked
them to offer specific suggestions for cuts instead of speaking in
generalities. They plan to take up specific items next week.

The shortfall comes because the city projected more income than the
Montana Department of Revenue says it's getting. When city officials
asked the state to double-check its property tax calculations, the DOR
came back with an even bigger deficit.

Ramharter said if the state's figures eventually prove to be wrong - and

favorable for Missoula - the city will make up the difference in the 2010
budget.

Meanwhile, shoring up the bottom line for 2009 means paying up or

whittling down $366,998 - or a little of both - in short order.

Engen said his original budget balanced with an increase of 3.5 percent
to the city's property tax levy. He proposed a jump of 4.82 percent
instead, which would balance the general fund without cuts.

He described the budget as already moderate, the increase as modest

and the citizens as pleased with current levels of services. Early on, he
asked department heads to come in lean with their budget requests,
and they did so, he said.

“New requests from my staff amounted to about $1 million less than

last year, and we funded about 92 percent of those requests,” Engen
wrote in an e-mail to council about his proposal to make up the
shortfall.

The original budget would have increased taxes on a $225,000 home

by $19 a year, he said. On the same home, his new proposal would
increase taxes $26, or another $7.

The jump wouldn't set any records for being the highest or lowest ever.
The increase in 2006 was 7.57 percent, according to Engen's e-mail.
The following year it was 4.25 percent, and last year it was 3.66
percent.

Ward 1 Councilman Jason Wiener pointed out the increases are only on
the city's portion of a property tax bill. He said that's roughly 30
percent of the whole bill, so it puts the overall increase at closer to 1
percent.

In any case, council members didn't adopt the mayor's plan

Wednesday, and called for budget cuts. When the talk about a smaller
budget heated up, Ward 6 Councilman Ed Childers said such a
discussion should have happened much earlier.

“This is an important conversation,” Childers said. “... It should have

occurred two months ago, honestly.”

At one point, Ward 5 Councilman Dick Haines said he wanted no

increases whatsoever - but later he said he liked the tone from
members across the aisle, and that the idea of zero increase was just a
starting point.

Ward 2 Councilman John Hendrickson told the mayor he appreciated

his work on the budget, but he couldn't support the increase.

“I don't think we should be going to the people, increasing their taxes if

we're not going to cut staff or programs,” Hendrickson said.

Ward 5 Councilwoman Lyn Hellegaard agreed and said the city is taxing
senior citizens out of their homes.

“We have looked at nothing to bring in our spending,” Hellegaard said.

Engen said the city has a program to help those seniors, and she
should have them call his office. The number is 552-6001.

Ward 5 Councilwoman Renee Mitchell also spoke in favor of more belt-

tightening. She said just half the people in Missoula own their own
homes, and she questioned whether the people calling for more
services were homeowners or renters.

“I'm not ready to start taxing people more on their homes,” Mitchell
said.

But Ward 2 Councilwoman Pam Walzer said renters pay their share of
property taxes when they pay their rent, and Wiener said he didn't
want to start slicing up Missoula into homeowners and renters, either.

The calls for a smaller budget came nearly a year after the budget
planning process began, and Ward 1 Councilman Dave Strohmaier said
the time had passed for council members to be speaking in general
terms about cuts. If they want to cut, they need to be specific, he said.

Ward 6 Councilwoman Marilyn Marler agreed, and said council

shouldn't ask the administration to wrestle with cuts without doing
some work of its own. She made some suggestions, like decreasing the
amount of money going toward neighborhood grants.

Mitchell then said she wasn't convinced the mayor's office needs a full-
time communications director. Others pointed to the Parks and
Recreation Department and Office of Planning and Grants as targets.

Council members agreed to send in suggestions for trimming to the

finance director and tackle the ideas next week.

Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262 or at

keila.szpaller@missoulian.com.

Copyright © 2008 Missoulian