Sean C. Morgan
After late adjustments on May 27, the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Budget Committee approved its proposed 2015-16 budget.
The budget now moves to the Board of Directors for a public hearing and adoption prior to the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The new budget takes effect on July 1 and expires on June 30, 2016.
The approved budget totals $2.3 million, including an anonymous private donation of $100,000 to help pay for a new four-wheel- drive ambulance.
The board will need to figure out where to get another $60,000 in 2015-16 to pay the rest of the cost of that ambulance, said Fire Chief Dave Barringer. What the board chooses to do will affect the district’s ending fund balance, which Barringer has proposed at $80,000.
The district will begin 2015-16 with $147,000, up from a budgeted $6,192 in 2014-15, reducing the amount of cash the district will need to borrow short term to pay for operations from July to November when the district begins receiving property tax revenues.
The district would have finished 2014-15 with a deficit of about $117,000, resulting from mistaken figures in previous budgets, had the board not taken action and dissolved the equipment reserve fund. The dissolution of the fund provided a positive beginning fund balance for 2015-16.
In addition to its beginning fund balance, district revenue includes Fire-Med and ambulance fees of $697,000, up from a budgeted $579,000 in 2014-15 and an actual $548,000 in 2013-14. The majority of remaining funding will come from property taxes, $1.06 million.
Also part of the bottom line for revenues, the district also is budgeting $350,000 in a line of credit, the same as it budgeted for 2014-15.
On the other side of the equation, the Administrative Division budget shrinks to $591,000 from an actual $666,000 in 2013-14 and a budgeted $578,000 in 2014-15.
The Ambulance Division is budgeted at $822,000, up from an actual $747,000 in 2013-14 and a budgeted $711,000 in 2014-15.
The Fire Division is budgeted at $47,000, up from a budgeted $45,000 in 2014-15 and an actual $47,000 in 2013-14.
Personnel costs are budgeted at $1.46 million, about the same as the district’s actual expenses in 2013-14 and up from a budgeted $1.33 million in 2014-15.
Materials and services funding decreases to $292,000, from an actual $326,000 in 2013-14 and a budgeted $349,000 in 2014-15.
Capital outlays increase to $110,500 to pay for the new ambulance, which has been ordered.