Carson City Board of Supervisors approve city, redevelopment budgets

A $135.6 million all funds city budget, almost half of which is general fund money, won unanimous final support Thursday to cover Carson City’s coming fiscal year.

The Board of Supervisors not only adopted the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015-16 spending guide, but acting as the Redevelopment Authority also unanimously approved a $1.74 million authority budget. The latter includes $30,000 for an Epic Rides mountain bike event in June, 2016. City Manager Nick Marano projected it will bring 4,500 people to the community.

“It will highlight our mountain bike trails we’ve spent a lot of time, a lot of money putting together,” said Marano after he was asked about the expenditure being moved from the general fund budget to the authority’s spending guide. He said the money will help provide required city services, adding parts of the event will include activities in the downtown redevelopment area. The 4,500 tourism figure is likely just the beginning, he said.

“We expect the number will increase,” said Marano, noting the deal with Epic Rides covers five years until 2020.

That $30,000 move from general fund to authority budgeting status was among just a few alterations involving the budget crafted by staff, with subsequent input on such changes from board members. They were reviewed for staff direction at a regular board meeting on May 7.

Supervisor Jim Shirk, before Thursday’s budget vote tally, said he intended to support adoption but was unhappy about the process. He said there had been insufficient time for board input.

The board also unanimously established by resolution an Extraordinary Maintenance Fund of $100,000, which was proposed earlier by Supervisor Lori Bagwell. It will be used to do city building rooftop repairs, which is part of her effort with board support to tackle deferred maintenance built up during the recession.

Other action Thursday included a required but routine separate vote, also unanimous, to set the property tax rate for County Cooperative Extension in FY 2015-16 at 1.28 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That is not an increase and is part of the overall $3.52 property tax rate per $100. The board earlier had decided on the $3.52 level, cutting it from $3.54 this fiscal year.

The general fund includes as its main revenue sources city sales and property taxes, which make up more than 69 percent of that aspect of the budget. Of the $67.7 million general fund budget, the other nearly 31 percent comes from charges for services, licenses, permits and miscellaneous sources.

The general fund spending guide includes $64.4 million in actual spending and a $3.3 million reserve, or more than 5 percent, which technically is called a projected ending fund balance for a cushion at the close of FY 2015-16. The state requires that reserve be at least 4 percent.

The fiscal year begins July 1. The Thursday meeting, which took less than an hour, was a special meeting required by the state. It included a public hearing, but no one from the public testified.