Jackson Free Press

Good afternoon!

President Bluntson, members of the City Council, employees, citizens of Jackson, and friends; thank you all for being here today as we present the FY 2010-2011 Executive Budget for the City of Jackson. This document is now before the City Council for review and subsequent adoption on or before Sept. 15, 2010. Projected expenditures include $118.8 million in General Fund appropriations, and $137.3 million in non-General Fund appropriations, for a total operating budget of $256.1 million.

This annual operating budget represents a $10.6 million or 4 percent decrease over the current year's adopted budget of $266.7 million. We will be able to accomplish this reduction through realignment in some city departments, decreasing capital outlay, restructuring our General Obligation Bond debt and implementing performance-based budgeting.

There is also a $32.8 million or a 36.3% decrease from the FY 10 Capital Budget. This decrease is primarily from expending bond funds on projects such as street paving and other capital improvement projects in the current fiscal year. The total FY 2010-2011 proposed budget is $313.6 million.

Jackson, like other cities across the state and the nation, has experienced a trying year financially. Sales tax revenue has lagged. Building permit fees and public utility franchise fees were also lower than projected.

This, coupled with having no sufficient repayment mechanism in place for the 2009 Street Paving Bond, forced us to take a hard look at our expenditures and we sounded the call for more belt-tightening and greater efficiency.

I am happy to report that in the current budget year, every department from Administration to Public Works and from Police to Parks and Recreation saved money. Department heads made prudent decisions on where savings could be realized, and sometimes those choices were difficult, but in the end no city service was cut, no employee was laid off, no one was furloughed and we were able to live within our means! Ladies and gentlemen, the city of Jackson's financial management is sound and our financial situation, although sometimes challenging, is stable.

I am also pleased to report that this budget includes no tax increase to the citizens of Jackson. However, we realized, coming to the end of this fiscal year that we were going to need to carry the cuts made this year into this proposed budget

This year we took the important first step of hiring a financial advisor who made important recommendations to close the projected short term deficit of $9 million in the 2011 fiscal year and a possible cumulative $48.5 million deficit by 2015 if we did nothing. One of the recommendations was to restructure existing bond debt in order to realize some savings that would provide some relief while our local economy was able to recover. Ladies and gentlemen, as a result of this recommendation, we will be able to realize about $5 million a year for the next four years. As a matter of fact, we've closed the gap of the projected $9 million significantly through savings and bond restructuring; the shortfall was brought down to $2.9 million, which will be covered by our applied fund balance. Our fund balance will still have $1.2 million above the 7.5% mandated by council, and we intend to put even more in this piggy bank over the next year!

The city of Jackson employs dedicated public servants who, day in and day out, make sure that the citizens of Jackson are provided with excellent service. We know that these employees deserve raises, but given the stark reality of the current economy, we cannot include one at this time. Across the board raises would force us to consider cutting city services, laying off personnel or implementing furloughs. Despite this reality, the city continues to provide a significant subsidy to the employees' medical insurance premiums which continue to rise. This year the general fund will pick up 67% of employees' insurance premiums, that's up more than $500,000 from last year.

Over the last two decades, population has declined in Jackson and our tax base has been reduced. Yet, in some cases, we are still providing the same level of service, as though we still had a 200,000 person population.

We have to get into the business of right-sizing city government, and in this year's budget we are proposing measures that will enable us to do just that.

Not only will right-sizing city government allow us to better align our service delivery, right-sizing city government will task city employees with being innovative in performing their work. It will involve employing new, and in many cases, long needed technology that will provide a new level of efficiency to the citizens and a new level of accountability for city government.

Right-sizing city government will involve us cutting waste; rethinking our processes and working within the framework of having measurable goals with progress we can and will share with our citizens.

Several initiatives and programs will assist us in this right-sizing:

We will hold the JATRAN budget flat this year, and will analyze routes, some of which haven't been changed in 30 years. Our goal is to adjust routes, make personnel reductions over the next three years through natural attrition and cut JATRAN expenditures by at least 7.5% by 2013.

We will finalize the implantation of 311. The 311 computer-based system will allow citizens to effectively report problems and concerns and track them in the system until a resolution is made. It will also allow city departments to see, in real time, the number of reported problems, the time it is taking to complete requests and the types of requests. This way we can adjust our resources, our manpower and our goals to right-size the needs of the citizens.

We will be implementing a fleet management system. This computerized system will track maintenance and repair needs of our city vehicles, enabling us to ensure that we are taking care of the fleet and saving money.

We are going to purchase Municipal Court Software that will provide a more efficient Municipal Court. It will allow for online payments of fines, it will provide for better docket management and it will increase collections of outstanding fines and warrants. That's the kind of right-sizing I like!

We will continue to implement our online water bill payment system, Paymentus, and we will also implement a full Utility Management System that will bring our billing system up to date.

I'm also happy to announce that we will be hiring street sweeping crews that will put Jacksonians to work, while at the same time eliminating the need for our private street sweeper contract.

This year we intend to get back not only to performance-based budgeting, but we also intend to connect expenditures to public policy initiatives. These initiatives provide a roadmap of priorities for the city of Jackson:

1. Reinventing Government; which falls in line with right-sizing government
2. Infrastructure and Transportation
3. Public Safety
4. Economic and Community Development
5. Youth Development
6. and, Culture, Social & Recreation Services

In the area of Infrastructure and transportation:

We will use $29 million in bond proceeds to continue to address our water issues.
Those include completing the 54" transmission line that will connect the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant to the J.H. Fewell Plant, increasing pressure and capacity throughout the water system.

We will also install two 48" water mains from J.H. Fewell to I-20 which will complete the installation of major transmission lines

We will be breaking ground on a storage tank and a booster station in South Jackson in the coming year. Upon completion, this will enable the well system to be abandoned.

And we are very hopeful that the State Bond Commission will include the $6 million authorized by the Legislature and signed by the Governor for water system improvements in this year's bond issue. These funds will be used to upgrade water lines around the Capitol Complex and build a 2 million gallon storage tank to ensure good pressure in the downtown area.

Everyone knows the serious nature of Jackson's water and sewer system needs, but we still must educate our citizens on the process of meeting these needs. That's why I have re-instituted our water and sewer citizens advisory committee. These men and women will be a bridge between the administration and our citizens to both gather ideas from the community and to help us share information about our water and sewer problems, the work we've already been able to accomplish and the work that lies ahead.

We realize that ratepayers have dug deep into their pockets to pay for water and sewer improvements. In light of the condition of our water and sewer systems, we have no choice but to propose a small rate increase in this year's budget for water and sewer. During my previous administration, we had a gradual rate increase schedule; however, there has not been a rate increase for either water or sewer since 2004.

The modest increase that we are proposing would amount to a $3.08 increase per month for water and a $1.32 per month increase for sewer for the average residential customer. That's just over $52 a year, or about $1 per week.

This rate increase will demonstrate to our regulators that we are committing ourselves to stabilizing our systems in order to make future improvements.

We will also be implementing automatic metering for our water system this year. This will guarantee additional revenue by ensuring that we are catching waste, we are most accurately gauging usage, and we are closing down illegal hookups. The increase in revenue that we anticipate will be used primarily to fund improvements to the water system.

We will continue to address our street repaving needs by dedicating $1 million for street improvements in 2011. We have also dedicated $1.4 million to address sidewalks on streets that are repaved. This will bring sidewalks up to ADA standards. We have also made a $1.1 million allocation to upgrade bus stops and sidewalks for our JATRAN riders. This will also further the city's continuing efforts to ensure that the city is meeting the needs of our disabled community.

We will also begin the Fortification Street Project. We will finish design on the Lynch Street Project. We will begin work on the Jesse Mosley Drive Project, providing new access to Smith Robertson Museum. And we will buy rights of way for phase two of the West County Line Road Project.

We will also continue our efforts to develop a citywide drainage management plan. This plan will prioritize improvements and will assist us in securing funding to address the critical drainage needs we have in the city of Jackson.

We are also working to reduce energy costs at city facilities and public libraries by retrofitting them using energy efficiency technology. We have also hired an energy coordinator to oversee this project and develop a process to continuously seek energy efficiency. This is all funded through grant dollars.

In Public Safety:

We have budgeted for 500 officers in this coming budget year and we have made provisions for a new recruit class of 35 police recruits in the 2011 budget.

We have also made provisions for a recruit class of 30 fire recruits in the new budget year. We will continue to increase staffing for the Jackson Fire Department to meet national certification standards. This standard insures that we have a good ratio of firefighters to every fire truck and other equipment.

The Fire Department will also be purchasing a new Fire Pumper truck that will serve as a rescue pumper truck for medical emergencies as well as to respond to fires. Jackson has a class 3 fire insurance rating right now, but is working towards achieving a class 2 which would be ensure that insurance rates in our city would go down.

This budget also allows for promotion exams for Captains and Lt. Driver Operators in the Fire Department this year.

Additionally, the Fire Department will be reorganizing some equipment and manpower to create a new Downtown District.

In Economic and Community Development

We will begin construction of a new $7 million JATRAN facility in 2011 at the corner of Highway 80 and Valley Street. This facility will be the main administration and maintenance hub for JATRAN.

Taking a serious look at tax-exempt property will be a priority in the coming budget year. This analysis of this property will ensure that we aren't missing out on tax collections from those who may be performing taxable services on tax-exempt properties.

Our intention is to hire a Senior Planner for Real Estate in the new budget who will oversee the disposal of surplus property and land bank property - these efforts will increase our revenue by putting these properties back on the tax roles.

We will also enjoy major developments that will be coming on line in the new budget year that will bolster our city's economy.

And the Highway 80 Economic Development Strategy will be completed in the coming year! We have no doubt that the strategy will be a great tool in luring new development opportunities to the corridor.

And we will continue to focus on our important Equal Business Opportunity goals. In fact, we have maintained an excellent track record of over 50 percent participation by minority and women owned businesses on city construction-related contract over the past year.

In Youth Development

This budget continues to support our young people through the Summer Youth Employment program. We will be putting our young people to work during the summer months, but we will work aggressively to formulate partnerships with private employers to match an even greater number of our young people that we are able to hire.

Human and Cultural Services

We must continue to bolster our efforts in making sure we have Jobs for Jacksonians. In this budget year we will be working towards a comprehensive plan that will accommodate different groups. We plan to partner with the WIN Job Center that will allow the city to have space at the center where we can guide senior citizens, ex-offenders, homeless individuals as well as youth and others through the employment search process. Our personnel department will refer individuals to the WIN job center as well.

We received a $95,000 transitional jobs grant for homeless individuals and we will be working to provide subsidized jobs for homeless individuals referred to us by social service agencies. Transitional workers will be available for various employment opportunities, receive job readiness training and assistance in searching for permanent, unsubsidized employment.

We will be enacting an Ex-Offender Reentry Program that will assist ex-offenders with finding jobs, as well as receiving training.

Although we've had a very lean year this budget year and we face another over the next, I am confident in the strength of Jackson's economy and our city's financial state. We have department directors who have worked hard this budget year to realize tangible savings. We have dedicated public servants in our city employees who are diligent in their service to us all, and I thank them today.

We will no doubt face some challenges ahead in the coming year, but too, shall we continue to see our city realize her true potential with wonderful development projects coming online both downtown and around town. This combined with our commitment to the citizens of Jackson to be excellent stewards of tax dollars and to continue our effort to "Right-Size" city government will no doubt put us in good stead in the long run.

I look forward to working with the City Council in the coming weeks and as Mayor of the great city of Jackson, I thank the citizens of Jackson in the confidence they have placed in me and my staff.

Thank you and God bless you!

Previous Comments

ID

159400

Comment

The Mayor did an outstanding job presenting the budget. It is refreshing to have someone knowledgeable and intelligent in City Hall. Welcome back Mayor Johnson, we are glad to have you back. Continue to put Jackson "back on track."

Author

maad

Date

2010-08-18T14:45:39-06:00

ID

159413

Comment

I agree. Even though results are not happening as fast as some people would like to see, I do believe he is trying to bring the city back on track. I also like that he tries to be straightforward with people, like not promising that the water crisis in January won't ever happen again. Also, by not being in front of the camera every single time one is around, Mayor Johnson is busy working behind the scenes to bring about a better Jackson. While he be credited for everything going in Jackson, he did at least plant the seeds on many things that we're starting to see the fruits bare.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2010-08-18T19:35:52-06:00