Budget Hearings Begin This Week - On Tap Tuesday, Mayor's Budget & More

The Admin and Finance committee of the City-County Council will kick off the first of dozens of hearings on Mayor Ballard's 2013 budget (see agenda).

Limited information is online, with Prop 285, 2012, providing the most detail.  As I compare budgets, I will be referring to information in Prop 241, 2011, that set the 2012 budget.

Normally I'd go into the overview of the budget, but no overview numbers are available as of now.  Even if I were to start my own spreadsheet, I would be missing critical information.  So, lets just jump into the pieces of the budget to be up for hearing this week.  I'll split the three days of hearings into three blog entries. 

First up - Admin and Finance - Tuesday, August 21 - 5:30 pm in room 260 of the City-County Building.  Hearings will be held on the budgets for

Office of the Mayor

Office of Finance and Management (Finance, Purchasing & HR)

Office of Corporation Counsel

Office of Minority and Women Owned Enterprises

The last office is new.  This function is currently within the Office of the Mayor.  I will keep these two together for a proper review of the 2013 budget as compared with the current budget, otherwise, one might get an improper perspective.

MAYOR'S OFFICE + OMWOE

The Mayor's Office is seeking a 15.9% increase in his net budget (+ roughly $600,000).  When you throw in the new OMWOE, it comes to an increase in net budget of 36.0% (+ roughly 1.3 m).  The net budget requested for the two groups combined is $5.1 m, up from $3.7 m this year.

However, that is not the whole operating budget for the Mayor.  This office charges other departments and agencies for some of the services they provide.  These charges total nearly $1 million for the 2013 budget, as compared with about $0.8 m this year.

All taken together, the operation of the Mayor's office plus OMWOE is being proposed at $6 million, and increase of 33.1% or $1.5 million from this year.  The lion's share is allocated to salaries - a total proposed for 2013 of $4.9 m, up from $4.0 m. 

Despite claims of reducing the number of positions in the Mayor's Office to justify the recent obscene raises there, the number of full time equivalent positions in the Mayor's Office plus OMWOE will grow from 64.15 to 73.65, if this budget is adopted intact.

OFM

The Office of Finance and Management is seeking a 12.1% increase in their budget (+ roughly $0.8 m).  The request is for $4.1 m for salaries and benefits, and $3.4 m for contracts, with a total operating budget of $7.5 m.

OFM's number of employees would grow by 1, to 66.

OCC

The Office of Corporation Council is seeking a 2013 net budget of $615,274, down 11.3% from this year.  This office, like the Mayor's Office, charges other departments and agencies for their services.  These charges are substantial and would amount to $3.4 million in 2013.  If you look at the actual operating budget for OCC, it would rise by 2.8% (+ about $0.1 m) to $4.0 m.

OCC's number of employees would grow by 2.68, to 48.68.