Moses Lake 2011 budget set to increase

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake initial budget for 2011 is roughly $75.3 million.

The figure is an estimate including all of the city’s employees’ salaries and any special construction projects set to occur in 2011.

“The City of Moses Lake is in good shape when you compare it to the other entities in the country,” said Finance Director Ron Cone.

The city operated with a $70.2 million budget in 2010.

The 2011 budget reserved roughly $22.8 million for city employees’ salaries.

The three departments receiving the most amount of money were the Parks and Recreation Department receiving $6 million, police department receiving $5.5 million and fire department receiving $2.6 million.

Union fire and ambulance personnel of the Moses Lake Fire Department received a two percent salary increase based upon contract negotiations with the city, according to Cone.

“The base increase of the operation of the city stayed pretty much the same. There were only minor cost increases for capital construction,” said Cone.

He said the city did not add any new positions for 2011. They also did not make any position cuts.

The city set aside several accounts to pay for special projects.

The water/sewer fund has roughly $18 million set aside and a $9.2 million account fund for future water and sewer construction has been established.

The city has roughly $6 million in debt to pay off in 2011.

A major debt increase in 2011 came from the construction of the new Civic Center in downtown Moses Lake.

The city took a $5.79 million bond to partially pay for the construction.

The city is on a 10-year bond repayment plan; paying $530,000 toward the bond in 2011 and roughly the same amount in the years after.

Cone said Moses Lake was able to maintain its healthy financial state by funds collected through property taxes.

The 2011 budget includes a one percent property tax increase.

“The large REC Silicon building plant that was built caused the assessed house values to go up, which in turn Moses Lake benefited from through property taxes,” said Cone.

Moses Lake property tax revenue is expected to be $8.4 million for 2011. This was a slight decline from property taxes in 2010, which is projected at $8.5 million.

He said cities that relied heavily on the sales tax suffered as the economy fluctuated.

Moses Lake retail sales tax is expected to bring in $4.8 million in 2011.

The sales tax dropped from 2010 sales tax revenues, which was a little above $5 million.

City council is expected to approve the 2011 budget in late November, said Cone.