Belmont set for balanced budget prep

“Our Capital Improvement Program is extraordinary this year, you have to go back decades to find a CIP that’s as impactful as the one being proposed in this budget,” said Finance Director Thomas Fil, referring to the city’s budget for infrastructure and maintenance projects.

The CIP will see a 2019 budget of $28.6 million, with about $18.3 million dedicated to sewers, $3.6 million to be spent on street improvements and $2.5 million on Measure I projects, which entails additional street as well as storm drain improvements. Measure I is the 30-year half-cent sales tax approved in 2016.

Street improvements in particular have been a City Council priority of late. Earlier this month, the council approved a five-year plan aiming to improve more than half of the city’s streets. Belmont currently ranks 59 on the pavement condition index, which means as a whole its roads are “at risk.”

“There’s a lot being done in this budget to address the condition of our streets,” Fil said.

The budget also includes three new full-time Public Works positions in preparation of a busy 2019 for the department.

Even so, city staff remains “lean,” according to the presentation, and Councilman Charles Stone said Belmont has one of the lowest full-time employee-to-population ratios in the county.

As encouraging as the city’s recent investments in infrastructure appear, $173 million in deferred infrastructure costs — excluding sewers — still loom.

As for the general fund, revenue is exceeding expenditures and the city now has $12.1 million in reserves, well above its $6.9 million target, with a contingency of $250,000.

“The budget really does indicate stable operations and we will be able to provide a very consistent level of service in 2019 and that’s across the departments,” Fil said.

Fil also described the city’s overall financial outlook as “stabilizing” after years of “surviving,” and he believes Belmont is closer than ever to “thriving,” which would entail robust reserves, well-funded pension plans and expanded services.

“To give an example of what surviving means, when I was early on the council we had to brown out fire stations or we had to borrow money from the general fund to fund the fire department because we didn’t have sufficient reserves and operating funds and that’s just one way going from surviving to stabilizing makes a difference,” Councilman Warren Lieberman said.

Such recourse seems like ancient history as the Fire Protection District now has $9.5 million in reserves, also above its target of $3.7 million.

Lieberman wondered why sales tax revenue had decreased by 1.9 percent even after an expansion of one of the city’s major auto dealerships, but Fil said those numbers are a conservative estimate and may ultimately rise. He also said there’s currently insufficient data to know how that auto dealership fits into the city’s current sales tax numbers.

“I wouldn’t be too alarmed by that decrease,” he said.

Property tax revenue, on the other hand, continues to grow.

The two main budget challenges city officials are anticipating in the coming years are by no means unique to Belmont. Fil said there is a “high likelihood” of a “mild” economic downturn within the next seven or so years, and the payoff of the pension obligation has accelerated from 30 years to 20 years, he said.

Fil added that his department will present a more detailed presentation on pension funding at the budget meeting June 12.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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