Mr. President and members of the City Council, the budget I present to you today is not “business as usual.” Instead, it represents a significant reform in thinking and direction for our City.
I’ve considered how past decisions have influenced the existing financial situation and have therefore made responsible choices to ensure a strong, sustainable future. This budget is both a comprehensive solution to our financial dilemma and a strategy for financial recovery.
The decisions leading to this budget are influenced by two very important factors:
• The expectations of our community, and
• The need for a long term stable financial plan for our city.
Hundreds of hours of discussion have gone into attempting to balance these two factors. This budget was formulated only after competent and careful consideration.
There is no doubt that this proposed budget is the most difficult that this City has had to face in recent memory. In preparing this budget, we felt it was absolutely essential to keep a multi-year perspective in mind. The history of relying on revenue streams that were not sustainable, compromising our pension obligations and depleting limited reserves have only postponed a necessary reform.
Implementing solutions can mean making difficult decisions. But a history of avoiding difficult decisions has left us with a legacy of problems.
I have worked successfully with my Department Directors to develop a spending plan that preserves the most basic city services, funds the pension obligation, increases reserve balances and closes a projected gap of $34 million.
The total proposed budget for 2011 is $675.8 million. This includes $313.5 million for General Fund operations and $178 million for capital improvement projects. The entire budget is available on the city’s website.
This past April, we held seven community budget forums across the city. Directors from various City departments spoke to citizens interested in where their tax dollars go. In those meetings, I heard a variety of opinions and ideas from engaged citizens, as well as their priorities for city services.
What we heard at the budget forums, as well as in countless other meetings that I have had with business and civic groups and neighborhood associations have influenced the steps we are taking now.
Omaha’s quality of life is the envy of other cities. Omaha citizens expect we will maintain our quality of life. To do that, we must work together as a community to meet the great economic challenge that faces us. The 2011 budget is premised on citizen expectations that we will maintain our quality of life. Omaha’s most pressing problem is its structural deficit - the imbalance between the cost of services the public expects from their City and the revenues that sustain these services.
The continued recession, a rapid increase in health care costs, the burden of an unfunded pension liability, the cost of maintaining a deteriorating infrastructure and the long term consequences of prior short term decisions have each taken their toll on the financial health of our City. For example, the increase in health care costs since the year 2000 have consumed the entire increase in sales tax revenue during the same time period.
For the rest of Mayor Suttle’s Budget Presentation, click on “More.”
Review a summary of the proposed 2011 budget.
View the entire proposed budget on the Finance Department’s website.
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