City Finances

Washington State Audit Report
Financial Statements Audit Report 2009-2010  (PDF Download)
Accountability Audit Report 2009-2010  (PDF Download)

2012 Budget  (PDF Download)
2011 Budget  (PDF Download)

Small Workers Roster

The City of North Bonneville maintains a small works roster for bidding many small public works and consulting projects. The Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington (MRSC) manages our small works roster for us.   Please use this link to add yourself to our roster.

A Message from the Mayor's Desk

As Mayor, my first commitment is to improve the financial health of our city. We have made a lot of progress and a lot of sacrifices in my first two years as mayor. On the upside, we have maintained many of our service levels – particularly public safety – and we have started some new projects that will provide long-term benefits. We completed the construction of our new sewer plant, which is designed to meet our community’s needs for the next twenty years or more and we have begun planning for a new water well, with construction planned to begin in 2013. Again, this should serve our community’s needs for growth and safety for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately with sales tax and utility tax revenues down 10%, inflation estimated at 3.8% and medical benefits up 11%, we must find new ways to balance our budget. Having already cut all non-essential contracts and supplies, we are left with making staff cuts and finding new revenue as our remaining options. From a high of 8 people (7.5 FTEs), the 2012 budget brings us down to 5 people (4.75 FTEs) – a loss of over 1/3 of our staff. We have cut our general fund budget by 23% from our 2008 high, going from $644,000 in 2008 to $498,000 for 2012. Accounting for inflation, our 2012 budget is 27% less than our 2008 expenses.

Additional cuts in the 2012 budget include:

  • Loss of our Maintenance Worker (laid off in June, 2011)
  • Loss of our Utilities Manager (retiring in January; position will not be filled)
  • Cut all city hall staff training from $1,100 to $0
  • Reduced postage costs (through a contract implemented in September, 2011)
  • Reduced economic development (EDC cut from $6,500 to $2,000)
  • Refinanced the fire truck loan to reduce payments
  • Cut maintenance supplies
  • Reduced the Chamber contract from $20,000 to $10,000
  • Closed the cable television fund (as of October 1, 2011)

Additionally, we accepted a State Ecology grant to update our Shoreline Master Program. While this will offset the costs of our planning department and improve our environment in the long run, it is also severely limiting staff time for normal planning operations.

Our cash reserves are at critically low levels due to several unanticipated events in 2011, including:

  • Lower sales tax revenues
  • Lower utility tax revenues
  • Loss of state assistance payments
  • Loss of federal aid
  • Lower than expected utility receipts
  • Unanticipated state payments
  • Higher overtime costs
  • Unanticipated unemployment taxes
  • Higher energy cost

Another setback the city is suffering is the write-down of about $140,000 from our fund balances to match actual cash. This write-down results from accounting errors in 2009 and 2010. Additionally, the state auditor is requiring interfund transfers of about $80,000 out of our General Fund to correct additional errors. As a result of these transactions we had to take loans from the Hotel/Motel Tax, Tourism Reserve, Capital Projects and Water Reserve Funds in order to provide cash to the General, Water and Sewer Funds. Repaying these loans will be burdensome to the city over the next few years.

We cannot cut staff and expenses further without either violating legal requirements or reducing basic public safety services, which leaves us in the unfortunate position of raising taxes in order to balance our budget. Regrettably, your council and I have decided that we need to increase property and utility taxes by 1%. In addition to this, our water and sewer rates are set to increase by the amount of inflation – 3.8% in March.

On the positive side, we have enjoyed and are anticipating a number of “wins” for the community:

  • By the end of 2011, we expect Sawtooth Technologies will be providing high-speed internet service over our former cable TV system. While not only providing a legitimate second choice to our residents for internet service, this is also an important economic development tool. Providing high-speed internet service is essential in order to attract new businesses to our city.
  • The Shoreline Master Program update mentioned earlier will be a long-term benefit. It will include restoration plans for our creeks and better enable us to avoid future degradation.
  • With the completion of our water system plan at the end of summer next year, we will be ready to design and engineer a new well. Once built, it will not only provide backup should we ever have trouble with our existing well, but it will also provide enough water to meet any growth in the next 20 years.
  • The 2012 budget will be the first one in recent memory that allows us to begin rebuilding our declining cash reserves. Additionally, we will be asking your council to approve an ordinance to build an emergency reserve fund that we can rely on should we ever find ourselves in our current straights again.
  • Finally, I am excited about our draft economic development plan (formerly referred to as a “sub-area plan”), which has a real chance of guiding the city toward development of its downtown business district. It takes advantage of all the natural and recreational advantages North Bonneville has to build a more robust tourism-based economy in our town.

With this budget we have completed a turn-around from gross deficit spending to slowly rebuilding our reserves. We are maintaining minimum service levels and continuing to plan and build for the future. While there is still progress to be made, I believe we have turned the proverbial corner and I am confident of our city’s future.

Sincerely,
Don Stevens