THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510250124
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
No wonder City Council members in the past have appeared so dumb at budget time.
Until Monday night, they had not been included in the total budget-planning process to spend our tax dollars.
``We've been getting the budget when it's pretty much set in stone,'' Mayor Gloria Webb admitted.
But that's changing this year.
Acting City Manager Ron Massie called a financial planning session Monday night to involve the council members in the budget-making from the beginning.
Johnna Whitaker, the deputy city manager who always seems open and above-board in discussions of city money, gave one of her usual straight-forward presentations.
She brought good news:
Revenues exceeded estimates by $114,000 - not much, but better than a shortfall.
The city spent $2.3 million less than was budgeted for the past fiscal year - a lot of money in Portsmouth.
As a result, the city will be able to increase its fund balance by $1.6 million, a major factor in bond ratings - and it helps with cash flow problems.
The trend is good, Whitaker said.
For one thing, sales tax income was up - less than $100,000, but up for the first time since the mid-1980s.
In addition to a $1 million increase in property taxes collected on motor vehicles because of a change in the way they were assessed, the city saw increases of $750,000 on the sale of bulk water to Chesapeake and $250,000 in museum admissions due to the opening of the Children's Museum of Virginia.
Massie noted that the city finished the year in the black and ``would have had even more'' but for the $1.9 million it took to settle a lawsuit over overtime pay with police officers.
Whitaker said adding $1.6 million to the fund balance would bring it up to $8.5 million, still short of the recommended $11 million but going in the right direction.
But all was not rosy in Whitaker's report.
When the city issues bonds for the new I.C. Norcom High School and a few minor capital projects, the city's debt service will increase by 50 percent, adding $5 million on top of the $12 million the city already pays for money.
``The operating budget must fund this increase,'' she said.
So what should the city do to meet the challenge?
Whitaker said the open discussion of the city finances was part of the answer.
Also, she said, council must continue a long-range focus (as reflected in Vision 2005), determine priorities, leverage resources (such as property owned by Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority), systematically survey the city's work and discontinue what is not needed, make certain policy decisions such as charging fees to non-taxable property owners and moving to pay-as-you-go capital funding.
Doing all of these things to make ends meet will not be easy. However, council's involvement and discussion from the beginning should enable them to make better informed decisions when they get down to the wire at budget time.
It makes sense to bring the whole process closer to council and, thus, to the public.
In addition, Massie said, he also got city department heads together to discuss the budget rather than starting with private conversations.
It seems a major change is taking place right here in front of us - a refreshing change apparently driven by Massie.
Massie came to Portsmouth on an interim basis after retiring from the management staff of Norfolk and reportedly does not want the job here on a permanent basis.
However, maybe council needs to slow down its search for a new manager, hanging on to Massie long enough to get through the current budget process and to help council members rethink their way of doing the budget.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH BUDGET by CNB