Blackfoot's general fund is almost out of money - East Idaho News
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Blackfoot’s general fund is almost out of money

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BLACKFOOT — The city’s general fund is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on average each year. If that trend continues, the fund will be out of money within the next two fiscal years.

An EastIdahoNews.com analysis found since 2012, Blackfoot’s general fund has lost an average of $321,343 each year. That’s a 78 percent loss over five years. In 2012 the city had $1,756,811 in the fund by the end of 2017 it only had $408,745. A city’s general fund helps sustain day-to-day operations and subsidize departments that don’t collect enough in taxes or fees to pay for themselves.

The problem isn’t helped by the fact the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is operating at an average $587,323 yearly loss.

Parks don’t tend to bring in revenue, and though they can be a city’s jewel they are generally subsidized by taxes and other outside sources of revenue. Ideally, after receiving those funds, parks and other entities within the Parks and Recreation Department would break even. That is not the case in Blackfoot.

In the 2017 fiscal year city parks lost $285,010, recreation lost $110,059, the pool lost $178,213, and the golf course lost $46,607.

“The budget has been a big concern to me and others in the city offices,” Mayor Marc Carroll told EastIdahoNews.com. “I directed a budget freeze on discretionary spending in March and, though, we are seeing some benefit to the bottom line, we have a significant way to go.”

City Treasurer Holly Powell said the budget freeze has done what they hoped it would do.

“It has slowed spending in (fiscal year) 2018 so that we’ll have enough reserves in the general fund at the end of (fiscal year) ’18 to be able to subsidize Parks because they’ve also slowed their spending,” Powell said.

One of the biggest expenditures in the Parks and Recreation Department is the pool. The pool was also a recent subject for discussion within the City Council following the proposal for a $1.9 million bond in its June 5 meeting.

That’s when Councilwoman Jan Simpson asked whether it’s financially worth keeping the pool open.

“Right now, our biggest decision is with the pool,” Powell said. “That is a huge operational expense plus maintenance expense. That’s something that’s going to have to be looked at hard, if that’s something that is sustainable.”

Last year the pool received $48,192 in property tax, sales tax and admission from Blackfoot citizens. Including that and contributions from Bingham County and other sources of revenue, the pool brought in a total of $163,704. That doesn’t even cover half of the pool’s total expenditures in 2017.

It’s a similar story all across the board in the Parks and Recreation Department. The only entity to bring in more than it has spent since 2006 is the golf course.

In 2016 the golf course made $3,794. In 2010 it made $8,888, in 2009 it made $6,847 and in 2006 it made a grand total of $258. But every other year it operated at an average loss of $51,550.

Even after generating $737,529 through property and sales tax, county donations and fees, the golf course lost $46,607 in 2017.

“We have to assess what is a reasonable level to fund Parks and Recreation,” Powell said. “Parks and recreation are what make your city beautiful. They’re what attract people to your city.”

Powell said there is no “silver bullet” cause for why the general fund is losing so much money, but one of the biggest reasons is that the city is not growing.

“Where the city has not grown since the last census, property taxes don’t increase, your tax base isn’t increasing,” she said. “So if your revenues are decreasing of flatlining and your expenses are going up, it’s going to eat away at any reserves that you have.”

She said as the city prepares for a new budget she hopes to focus on what city services can increase rates or be cut completely.

“You can’t just go across the board and say, ‘OK, everybody, cut your budgets by 20 percent.'” Powell said. “What ends up happening with that is they cut line items but they still have to do the same thing. So then you’re asking them to do more with less money, and that’s not effective.”

She said each of the services offered by the different departments needs to be analyzed.

“In any of these programs that your offering in different departments — are they sustainable? Can we keep doing this?” Powell said.

Powell also said the city does have enough money in the general fund to cover the 2018 fiscal year.

“We slowed spending enough, but some tough decisions are going to have to be made for (fiscal year) ’19’s budget,” she said. “Even though we’re good this year, it can take one bad year, and when you don’t have reserves you’re compromising yourself. So we’ve got to make some tough decisions. That’s the bottom line.”

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