Latest / The City of Frankfort Podcast / Ep 20: You Took My Money For What? Finance & Budget

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Ep 20: You Took My Money For What? Finance & Budget · The City of Frankfort Podcast

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  From Capitol Halls to bourbon balls, this is the City of Frankfurt podcast for the Frankfortians.
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  We're swapping stories, spilling the tea, and celebrating the quirks that make
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  Kentucky's capital the best hometown around.
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  Welcome to the City of Frankfurt podcast. I'm Sarah, and today I'm being joined
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  by the city's finance director, Amber Moreland.
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  Amber and her team are in charge of managing all the money for the city,
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  and today's episode is all about something that impacts every resident,
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  every business, and every neighborhood, the city budget process,
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  and where your tax dollars go.
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  Amber, thanks for joining us. Thank you.
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  Let's start with some basics. When we say city budget, what are we really talking about?
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  When we refer to the city budget, we're actually referring or talking about
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  the city's comprehensive financial plan for the youth. Okay.
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  So it outlines what our expected revenues are going to be and authorizes how
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  those resources are going to be allocated across all departments.
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  Oh, sounds complicated.
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  What are some of the major things that the city budget covers?
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  So you've got primarily public safety, public works and infrastructure,
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  parks, recreation, general administration of government, capital projects,
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  debt service, and community and economic development.
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  A lot. It is a lot. But the dollars go far. That's good.
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  So Amber, this is your first time on the podcast, so we want to take a minute
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  to kind of get to know you.
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  How long have you been with the city? I've been with the city a little over a year now.
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  My background is primarily in higher education, finance, however,
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  I transitioned to city, and it's fund accountings, similar budgetary processes,
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  similar fund accountings.
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  Then, interesting, there's a lot of differences. There's a lot of great people
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  who are going to need to appear, and it's been fantastic for everyone.
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  Awesome, awesome. How does the city decide what gets funded and what doesn't?
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  The city decides what gets funded through a structured budgeting process that
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  balances each department's priorities, strategic needs and goals,
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  and available resources.
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  So departments submit requests based on their goals, and they're evaluated against
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  things like, do we have enough revenues for those goals?
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  What are essential services that we need to get covered? What are the city's
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  strategic goals for the year?
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  Do we have any legal or contractual obligations that have become first?
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  And community input and demand for services.
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  So from there, a proposed budget is developed, refined, and then presented to
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  the board commissioners. Sounds like a quick process.
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  Yes, it's a lengthy one.
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  So, as the Public Works Director, our department has a pretty significant portion of the city's budget.
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  Maintaining infrastructure and providing basic services is one of our core responsibilities
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  and one of the core responsibilities of local government.
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  Tell us how the Public Works section of the general fund budget breaks down.
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  The public works section typically focuses on the day-to-day operations of the
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  city, basically operating efficiently and safely.
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  And it generally breaks down into some key areas like personnel costs,
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  operation and maintenance.
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  And operation and maintenance sounds pretty generic, but that covers routine
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  uptrees of streets, sidewalks, floodwall, transit, sanitation, and public facilities.
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  We've got things like equipment and fleet that you have to maintain,
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  replacing the trucks, machinery, and pools.
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  And then we've got materials and supplies like asphalt, signage, and salt.
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  A lot of stuff. You know all this stuff, though. A lot of stuff,
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  but it does kind of sound, when you break it down, like it's not much,
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  but yeah, it's a big chunk there.
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  So when somebody pays their property tax bill, how much of that actually goes
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  to supporting public works?
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  Property taxes are only one source of revenue for the city, so it's not a direct
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  link-to-link, but rather a proportional share of it.
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  So public works makes up about 11% of the general fund budget.
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  So you could say $0.11 of your property tax bill goes towards how it works.
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  Just in a generic statement. Okay.
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  How are taxes different than fees when it comes to the city's revenue?
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  Taxes are just generally broad and distributed amongst all departments where
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  fees are specific to a service. You're paying for a license,
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  you're paying for a permit, or you're paying for a recreational program.
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  Okay. Okay. That makes sense.
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  Um so let's talk about the process of developing
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  this budget uh right now we're actually in
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  the middle of city budgeting process and
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  a lot of people may assume that the budget gets decided in just one meeting
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  we sit down and i say amber this is what i need i'll take it yeah uh sounds
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  like there's definitely more to it there's definitely more to it than that so
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  when does it actually begin we actually start budgeting early february it goes
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  all the way through june So we're having conversations with departments,
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  elected officials, the community from February to June, and June's when it's
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  officially published and adopted.
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  However, it's an annual process. It's continually changing. Every time you see
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  a budget amendment on the agenda, that's a change to our annual budget. Okay.
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  What would you say to residents who want to be more involved and informed on the city budget?
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  I'd encourage residents to stay engaged and attend our public meetings.
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  The budget is ultimately a reflection of our community priorities, so input does matter.
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  Your local officials hear you. They're out there having conversations with you
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  right now, and those conversations are reflected in our budgetary decisions. Okay, good advice.
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  So you said that your previous experience was mostly in higher education.
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  What would you say, in terms of coming to the city and our budgeting process,
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  what's been kind of the most interesting or surprising?
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  You know, it's really complicated because you've got multiple departments providing
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  essential services to a big city. I mean, it's a little big town.
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  I would consider it's a little big town. It feels like we're growing.
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  And it's oftentimes difficult to determine where our limited resources can go.
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  Is it public safety? Is it public works and infrastructure.
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  And those are all difficult conversations from February to June.
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  And so we decide how the revenues that we do have and that we are analyzing
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  and predicting, what those actually look like and how we can spend them for each department.
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  And then each department, you know, from a top level approach,
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  we're listening to all departments.
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  And then each department has to listen.
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  I'm sure it's difficult for you to determine between transit,
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  sanitation, the garage, floodwall, In the streets, who gets those funds?
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  Yeah, prioritizing especially our... What are the priorities?
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  Our big ass. Yeah, absolutely.
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  And with inflation, costs are going up more these days, and we are limited in
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  our revenues. Absolutely.
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  It's quite difficult to determine where those resources and revenues go for
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  each department. And I have found that year to year, it seems like, uh.
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  Priorities as fun and exciting as they can
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  be as they change or more you have to you have
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  to roll with that you have to change with it and so my priority
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  last year may not be the same as my and my i
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  mean public work priority this coming year so yeah we
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  have to work through it it's it's ever-changing and you know i've found that
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  each department you know they're having difficult conversations with their supervisors
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  and their directors during this process even within departments there often
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  has to be kind of difficult conversations about how to best manage the monies
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  that are allocated in each area.
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  Do you have any examples?
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  We're working through efficiencies on software for one unified system so that
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  we can reduce some of our contracts.
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  We're looking at current contracts to ensure best value for each department.
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  Oh and in public works we've been developing policies in order to cut down on
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  wear and tear vehicles and also save on spending money at the future. Very nice. Yeah.
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  Teamwork makes the dream work. That's right.
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  Well, Amber, we thank you and your department so much for all of the work that
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  you guys put into the city budget process.
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  And we thank you for helping us to better understand how the city plans,
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  spends, and stays accountable.
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  Here on our little podcast, we like to end each of our shows with a Springfort
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  rapid fire, kind of a fun informal little thing. So as a fellow Frankfortian,
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  we want to hear some of your takes on our whole town.
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  Just say the first thing that comes to mind. No explanation needed.
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  Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay.
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  What is your favorite season in Frankfurt? Fall. Fall.
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  How about a preference? Coffee versus tea. Coffee. Oh, I'm a people.
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  Stick with a coffee. One word to describe the city budgeting process. Deliberate.
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  Deliberate uh that's that's
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  mexican restaurant that's not fair too many
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  options i would go with agave now and in the summer meet yes
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  okay that's fair that's fair different different places for
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  different seasons i get it and how about your favorite frankfurt
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  park coke springs upper or lower
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  well okay very good well guys thank you for joining us this week we'll catch
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  you again next week on the city of frankfurt podcast don't forget to follow
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