By James Feichtner
On Sept. 21 at Fishers City Hall Auditorium, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness presented the proposed 2016 city budget the before council.
The total operating budget was proposed at approximately $62 million with an operating capital income of approximately $6.9 million totaling at approximately $69 million for the 2016.
Fadness discussed the present state of the city’s fiscal health indicating that the city’s cash reserves are an accurate point of reference. Fadness said Fishers has attentive goals when it comes to maintaining its reserves and that the city well meets those goals for 2016.
“One way we measure our fiscal health is how much (we) have in cash reserves,” he said “The City of Fishers has long had a very observant approach to cash reserves. We require that we maintain 50 percent of the current property tax revenue as reserves. Not only do we meet our cash reserves at the end of 2016, but we also anticipate having almost $1 million additional surplus above what we even need for cash reserves. We’re doing very well in that area.”
Comparing expenditures per capita to surrounding municipalities, Fishers was the lowest compared to Carmel, Westfield and Noblesville, at $1,245.46 per capita.
“Again I think this is a statement about not only the efficiency but also the effectiveness of the employees we have. It wouldn’t be a great story if all we had was efficient,” Fadness said. “The great story is that we can not only do it for less, but we can provide a great service.”
Other figures covered in the presentation were past, present and future main sources of revenue, debt obligations per capita, city net assessed value, and tax increment financing.
Other investments mentioned focused in public safety, parks, personnel and fleet. Fadness made note of the five-year contribution to revitalizing roads within the city.
“We knew that transportation is something on the minds of residents and so we’re attacking it as aggressively as we can,” he said. “Not only are we attacking it aggressively, we’re also doing it in an entrepreneurial approach. We are going after federal dollars and we are leveraging our local money to bring in those federal dollars. Case in point, we have secured over $30 million in federal funding for roads and trails over the next five years. This is an ambitious program for any community. All of them are at least 80 percent paid by the federal government and I think that is an extraordinary story to tell if we’re able to upgrade our infrastructure while leveraging our federal and state parks.”
Fadness said he hopes to continue in directing the city through the budget utilizing a “smart, vibrant and entrepreneurial” approach.
“For smart, I wanted efficient and effective public services and public safety investments. From a vibrancy standpoint we want to foster community connections and trails and roads. We’re doing some new parks partnerships that we think will foster some additional vibrancy in our community,” he said. “And to be an entrepreneurial city we’re doing this in a bit of an individual approach in an order of how do we not only deliver these services but our ability to partner with the state and federal governments.”
In closing, Fadness discussed how tax rates would be affected. While rates were estimated to slightly increase, they would return to the previous rate from 2014, making Fishers still one of the lowest tax rates of any major city in Indiana.
“What does this all mean to the tax rate? In 2016, we anticipate our tax rate to go up roughly 1.6 percent. Really what that means is in 2015 we had anticipated putting on debt. So our tax rate actually declined and now it’s going back to what it was in 2014. We are still the lowest tax rate in the major cities in Indiana, which I think is an extraordinary feat given the level of service and the amount of investment that we’re giving our community,” he said.
No action was necessary at the council meeting and city officials have until Nov. 1 to approve the budget.
By the numbers
- Total estimated operating budget in 2016: $62 million
- Estimated operating capital income in 2016: $6.9 million
- Estimated expenditures per capita: $1,245.46
