Roseville's $501.8 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year will be balanced by cutbacks and the loss of about a dozen jobs through attrition.
Revenue projections for the city remain flat.
"We'll still dream big, but we just realize that this year will be status quo, and in these economic times, status quo is a good thing," City Manager W. Craig Robinson said.
The 2008-09 budget is up slightly from this year's, allowing for construction projects and increased energy and fuel costs, but the general fund operating budget is down $4.4 million. This year's general fund budget is $129 million.
"The watchword for this year is uncertainty on the revenue side," Administrative Services Director Russ Branson said.
Sale tax revenues – which, combined with property tax money, make up 64 percent of general fund revenues – continue to decline. Next year, sales tax revenues are projected to drop 3 percent, bringing in an estimated $44.1 million.
"The primary hits have come in the transportation- and construction-related industries, but everybody is suffering to some degree," Branson said.
Property tax dollars are tentatively projected to go up 3 percent to $35.3 million, compared with 15 percent to 20 percent jumps in recent years.
"This is much slower growth than we've had in the past, and we don't have a final number yet from the county," Branson said. "They have told us they will probably decrease residential property valuation by $800 million overall."
Since March 2007, city employees have been chipping away at expenses as the economy began to dip.
Last June, the council approved a $471 million budget, which staff members trimmed by nearly $8.1 million midway through the fiscal year by cutting travel and training costs.
Roseville also had lost 30 permanent positions through attrition by midyear, and the upcoming budget reflects dropping at least another dozen positions from the payroll as employees leave voluntarily.
In addition, some programs will be eliminated next year, including the city's $60,000 annual contract with the Arts Council of Placer County to provide cultural arts services.
Judi Nicholson, who has served as as the Arts Council's Roseville liaison for the past two years, objected to the cutback.
"I'm asking if there might be some way that you would be willing to consider working with us to brainstorm some creative methods of reconfiguring our agreement so as not to lose the benefits of an on-site arts administrator," Nicholson said. "You have invested $120,000 over the last two years to launch this pilot program, which has been successful."
Assistant City Manager Mike Shellito, however, said the city is still committed to providing cultural arts programs to the public but will reduce costs by using in-house staff members instead.
In other expenses, the upcoming fiscal year's spending plan calls for nearly $150 million in capital improvement projects, including a new indoor aquatic center, $30 million in transportation improvements and the $12.5 million Riverside Avenue streetscape project.
"We wish we could offer all the programs that we normally do," Robinson said. "We wish we could fund all the positions that we have in the past. But this budget is realistic, and I think it projects and portrays a reality that we are facing."
Call The Bee's Jennifer K. Morita, (916) 773-7388.
