City Council addressed this year's
budget shortfall was presented
this week.
Town of Ocean City's proposed
Operating Budget for Fiscal Year
2014 in ordinance form on first
reading.
ing with the General Fund in the
amount of about $77 million. The
Enterprise Funds include $7.4 mil-
lion in water, $12.6 million in
wastewater, $9.7 million in trans-
portation, $6.9 million for the con-
vention center, $1.4 million for the
airport and $2.1 million for the golf
course. Internal Service funds in-
clude $1.8 million for information
technology, $5.2 million for the
service center, $2.2 million for the
vehicle trust and $2.2 million for
risk management. There is $16
million dedicated for Pension and
OPEB Trust and $2.5 million for
capital projects. The budget totals
almost $147.7 million.
FY14 required a great deal of col-
laboration and cooperation from
all town departments, according to
Recor. During the city manager's
partment funding requests were
reduced by more than $4.2 mil-
lion, including $3 million in person-
nel and operating expenditures,
plus an additional $1.2 million in
proposed new vehicle purchases.
on April 9, the following changes
were made to further reduce a
budget gap; several additional
paid parking locations were estab-
lished, weekend rates at the Inlet
Parking Lot were increased, am-
bulance fees were increased, the
third shift bus service was elimi-
nated during the winter months
and operating hours at the skate
park were reduced (although later
overturned).
et were identified to offset the ris-
ing costs of in-kind services provid-
ed to the growing number of large
private/special events held in
Ocean City. Plus, city staff further
reduced other department expen-
ditures by more than $250,000.
$.0144 off the preliminary tax rate.
The final reductions to the original
department budget requests total
nearly $5.5 million.
cess by utilizing comprehensive
trend analysis to project revenues
and estimate expenditures to fund
current programs and services
with the existing workforce.
ty taxes, $15.6 million in other
taxes, $3.9 million in licenses and
permits, $4.4 million in revenue
from other agencies, $9.4 million
in charges for current services,
$735,000 in fines and forfeitures,
$414,000 in other revenue and
$247,000 in prior year reserves,
which totals about $77 million.
Constant Yield tax rate of $0.462
plus a penny per $100 of
assessed valuation of real proper-
ty. The penny added derived from
a decision the former council
made last year to reduce the pro-
posed tax rate by a penny that
ended up saving the average tax-
payer about $20 a year.
generate an additional $850,500
in property tax revenue for FY14.
In addition, projected revenue
from corporate and personal prop-
erty is based on a rate of $1.29
per $100 of assessed valuation.
ment obligations and equipment
replacement needs resulted in
increased expenditures for provid-
ing the same level of service as
last year. In addition, new policy
decisions and the desire to en-
hance and expand levels of serv-
ice affect and cause the need for
additional resources in the annual
budget.
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