{"id":11566,"date":"2019-07-01T17:56:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T17:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=11566"},"modified":"2019-07-01T17:56:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T17:56:30","slug":"north-valley-cities-try-to-find-their-bottom-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/01\/north-valley-cities-try-to-find-their-bottom-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"North Valley Cities Try To Find Their Bottom Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Mayor Neil Bradshaw talks about balancing his vision statement for the City of Ketchum with budget realities. Photo credit: Eric Valentine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Summertime is more than vacations, staycations and pool parties as far as local city halls are concerned. The warm season is also when budget planning heats up, as workshops and public hearings fill city council agendas to ultimately create a spending plan they can stick to during the next fiscal year that starts in the fall.<\/p>\n

The Weekly Sun has put together a general rundown of each Valley city\u2019s budget-making schedule and we chat with the mayors of the cities about next year\u2019s biggest budget challenges. We start north, with Ketchum and Sun Valley.<\/p>\n

Ketchum<\/b><\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s the big day in Ketchum. It\u2019s when the proposed budget will be released to the public in time for a July 1 public hearing, where city leaders will present and discuss the spending plan they\u2019ve been laboring over this spring.<\/p>\n

That labor was due in large part to what has been described as a $700,000 budget \u201cshortfall\u201d for the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really a shortfall,\u201d Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n

Bradshaw explained that department heads put together a wish list\u2014or needs list\u2014before taking revenue into account. Once those lists are added up, all of it is compared against projected revenue. Factoring in\u2014among other line items\u2014the state maximum 3 percent increase in property taxes and the decrease in revenue from losing the rural fire district contract, the city had to find a way to reduce the wish list by roughly $700,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in across-the-board cuts. I prefer a scalpel,\u201d Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n

The upcoming budget sessions will be held at Ketchum City Hall, starting at 4 p.m. The dates are:<\/p>\n

July 1\u2014Budget presentation and discussion<\/p>\n

July 15\u2014First reading<\/p>\n

August 5\u2014Second reading<\/p>\n

August 19\u2014Third reading and adoption<\/p>\n

The public is encouraged to attend and comment at each of the sessions.<\/p>\n

Sun Valley<\/b><\/p>\n

Challenges are no less in Sun Valley even though the overall size of the budget may be (roughly $10.5 million for Ketchum and $10 million for Sun Valley). Mayor Peter Hendricks said his city\u2019s biggest challenge is planning ahead, not simply for next fiscal year, but for fiscal year 2025, too.<\/p>\n

For instance, Hendrick noted, snowplows will need to be replaced in about five years, an estimated $400,000 expense. If this year\u2019s budget doesn\u2019t take that into account, the math in future years becomes more dicey.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be in a situation where all of a sudden you have a bill staring you in the face down the road,\u201d Hendricks said.<\/p>\n

Hendricks noted that Sun Valley\u2019s budget has the benefit of a major bond that passed two years ago allowing for the funding of a number of street and pathway improvements. He encourages the public to take part in the upcoming budget sessions which are held at Sun Valley City Hall:<\/p>\n

July 1, 1 p.m.\u2014Budget presentation by Finance Committee<\/p>\n

July 8\u20139, 9 a.m.\u2014Special council meetings<\/p>\n

August 1, 4 p.m.\u2014Regular council meeting<\/p>\n

August 6 & 12, 4 p.m.\u2014Special council meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine Summertime is more than vacations, staycations and pool parties as far as local city halls are concerned. The warm season is also when budget planning heats up, as workshops and public hearings fill city council agendas to ultimately create a spending plan they can stick to during the next fiscal year that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36,49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-slider","9":"category-top-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}