Proposed budget includes big-ticket items

Proposed budget includes big-ticket items
San Diego Union Tribune - San Diego,CA,USA
Beacon's Beach sea wall and footpath, with $2.8 million budgeted. Total
cost is undetermined. Five pedestrian crossings over the railroad tracks,...

ENCINITAS – Thanks to increasing property tax revenue and budget surpluses, Encinitas will have more than enough money to build priority facilities, boost its reserves to an unprecedented level and go high tech, a proposed budget for the coming fiscal year shows.

It will even spare property owners the threat of fee increases in two controversial programs – pollution control, and street lighting and landscaping.

The city will use general funds to subsidize those.

In doing so, city officials are acknowledging the harsh lessons learned in 2005 and last year when voters rejected a $3-to $5-per-year increase in the Lighting and Landscape District's assessment and a $5-a-month pollution control fee.

Not only did voters say no, but critics repeatedly accused the city of nickel-and-diming property owners.

In the proposed budget, which forecasts finances for six fiscal years beginning July 1, the Lighting and Landscaping Assessment District is expected to incur a $56,000 deficit in 2009-10 and a $154,000 deficit in 2010-11. The city's general fund will shoulder the cost.

The city will pay $1.6 million for pollution controls in 2007-08 to meet the state's Clean Water Act standards. That cost is projected to increase in the next few years.

“We are in very good shape,” Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan said. “It's a byproduct of having a relatively conservative approach to budgeting. I am very pleased.”

Mayor James Bond said he is pleased with a sound budget that shows revenues continuing to outpace expenditures.

And the city is expecting to increase its emergency reserves from the current 15 percent of operating expenditures to 20 percent, an unprecedented high. That would bring the city's reserves to $9.14 million in the coming fiscal year.

The city also is proposing a new budget stabilization reserve at 2 percent of revenues to cope with recessions. That fund would start at $1.07 million in the next fiscal year.

Residents will have their first opportunity to comment on the proposed budget at a City Council workshop at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave.

Major capital improvement projects budgeted for the next six years include the first phase of a 44-acre public park in Cardiff, with $15 million budgeted.

The park, commonly known as the Hall property after a previous owner, would include a dog park and grassy areas. But city officials said they cannot predict when construction could begin because the project is undergoing a lengthy environmental review that could end up in litigation.

The budget also contains funding for a long-awaited beautification of North Coast Highway 101 from A Street to La Costa Avenue in Leucadia. The total cost of the project has not been determined, but the city has allocated $1.2 million and is proposing to set aside $500,000 each year for the next six years.

Encinitas also is studying unfunded liabilities in its retirees' medical benefits. The city is proposing to set aside $500,000 each year beginning in 2008-09 for five years for possible payments.