City Council relieved with an updated $206M budget
The city’s budget for fiscal year 2021-22 was approved with much delight expressed by Woodland City Council members who said they expected much worse after coming out of the pandemic.
“I think there’s a lot of room for gratitude in this budget,” Mayor Tom Stallard said. “We have survived the pandemic I think we’re poised for thriving in the future.”
The proposed spending plan discussed during a council meeting nearly a month ago was much smaller with only $179.3 million, a 3% decrease from the previous year’s spending plan.
The updated budget was discussed during the council’s Tuesday zoom meeting with a much more comfortable $206 million spending plan. City Manager Ken Hiatt gave a short presentation highlighting how the city would allocate the funds.
“We believe that provides for the necessary investments in our community to continue to deliver
quality services and at the same time being fiscally prudent,” Hiatt explained.
The proposed spending plan for the annual budget would allocate $156.5 million to city operating funds, $23.7 million to capital funds and $25.8 million to debt service obligations, according to the staff report.
The spending plan represents an 11% increase from the fiscal year 2020-21 adopted budget, according to the staff report.
The Capital Improvement Program budget totaled $22.5 million with large amounts of funding going toward transportation, water and other infrastructure needs.
The city will be spending large amounts for investment in transportation infrastructure, Spring Lake infrastructure projects and to advance capital projects within the water and sewer utilities.
Measure F revenues for the fiscal year 2021-22 were estimated to be $6.6 million, according to the staff report. Money made from this measure helps fund general city services such as street maintenance and parks.
The spending plan also included an anticipated $3.3 million in revenues with recommended appropriations including $8,000 in one-time and $128,000 in recurring funding recommendations above baseline budget, according to the staff report.
Woodland is also eligible to receive $11.1 million in COVID relief funds from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act funds that will be distributed through two $5.55 million installments beginning June, according to staff.
“As pointed out, the fiveyear forecast does show significant potential deficits moving forward, so we’re tracking that very closely,” Hiatt said.
Councilwoman Mayra Vega asked Hiatt if there would be any funding allocated to the construction of a fire station in the Spring Lake community.
“There is a million-dollar reserve recommended to be allocated towards the future fire station relocation project,” Hiatt said. “That is only a drop in the bucket towards the ultimate funding needed to fund that roughly $10 million project.”
Stallard said he thinks there’s a lot of room for gratitude in this budget considering all the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“We have a lot more wants than we have dollars, but through careful management, we get to those things that are important to us,” Stallard said.
Councilman Rich Lansburgh said that the Woodland community should be feeling good about where we are in terms of the budget after all the uncertainties created by the pandemic.
“It could be better, but we expected worse,” Lansburgh said.
The city council unanimously approved the resolution to adopt the annual budget proposal.