Coldwater adopts a $12.5 million budget for 2023-24

Don Reid, Coldwater Daily Reporter
·3 min read

COLDWATER — City Council members approved a $12.5 million general fund budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year beginning July 1 Monday night.

“Our initial 2024 fiscal year budget shows a deficit of $512,000," said Tom Eldridge, treasurer and finance director.

The city's fund balance will be $5.5 million, or roughly 48% of expenditures.

Coldwater Brown Municipal Building
Coldwater Brown Municipal Building

A year ago, the city passed an $11.8 million budget for the current fiscal year with a $1,660,713 deficit from a then $6 million fund balance. 

Increases in revenues and changes in expenditures saw two amended budgets in 2023, which reduced the deficit to $802,000 for the June 30 end of this fiscal year.

Where is the increase in revenue coming from?

Property taxes:  $4,147,000 comes from 11.5642 mills assessed on real property

Property tax collections are expected to increase by approximately 6% due to growth in real property values. Because inflation was 7.2% above the 5% Headlee Amendment cap, there is no millage rollback this year.

Payment in lieu of taxes: The city charter requires 6.5% of utility revenues, or $3,384,887 this year, to go to the general government.

The city received $3.31 million in 2021, the first year of Clemens pork plant operations reported revenues. In 2022 PILOT dropped to $3.09 million due to Covid-19 shutdowns and Mastronardi greenhouse usage drops. The PILOT rose to $3.23M in the current year’s budget.

State Shared Revenue: $1,710,000 shared from sales tax and other state revenues based on the population, up from $1.5 million in the current year.

Coldwater’s 2020 census non-prison population is 12,400. Through an agreement with Coldwater Township, revenue sharing received for the 1,450 prisoners at the Lakeland Correctional Facility is distributed to the township after the city gets it.

Expenses:

  • General Government: $2,127,199 from the current $2,071,182

  • Public Safety: $5,903,841 from $5,683,422

  • Public Works: $1,911,846 from $1,559,858

  • Recreation and Cultural: $1,197,758 from $1,185,280

  • Planning: $221,530 from $164,020

  • Debt Service: $220,300 down from $223,000

  • Other Expenditures: $921,500 down from $932,150. This is primarily insurance payments for liability and worker’s compensation.

  • TOTAL 2023-24 Budget: $12,503,974

Eldridge pointed out, “roughly two-thirds of our expenses are tied to wages and benefits. We look closely at controlling personnel costs.”

Tom Eldridge
Tom Eldridge

Budgeted wages and fringes are higher for 2024 due to not having several positions filled for significant periods in 2023.

The personnel budget increase comes because of “overall inflationary wage increases,” Eldridge said.

The city is back to 75.5 employees in general government and 55.5 for CBPU. The number is back to the 2021 pre-COVID-19 staffing level, down three people over the last two years.

“It takes a large number of people to maintain the streets, plow the snow, provide recreational programing, enforce property maintenance ordinances, police the neighborhoods, and respond to fires,” Eldridge said.

Public safety, fire, and police account for 50% of the general budget. 

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---Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Coldwater adopts a $12.5 million budget for 2023-24