After unanimously approving two proposed budgets, the City and Borough of Juneau Finance Committee continues to move forward in the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) budget process.
Both Docks and Harbors and the Juneau International Airport budgets were approved during the committee’s meeting at Assembly Chambers Wednesday night. Both budgets now will be open to public comment before they are sent to the Assembly for final approval. Docks and Harbors and the Airport use their own revenues to fund operational costs. Both entities may come to the Assembly to ask for Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funding, but with Docks and Harbors that is not always the case.
“We are fortunate that Docks and Harbors can use its revenues towards its own capital projects,” CBJ Finance Director Bob Bartholomew said.
Port Director Carl Uchytil summed up Docks and Harbors budget by relating just how similar it is year-to-year.
“I think the remarkable thing is just how unremarkable the Docks and Harbors budget is,” Uchytil said. “I think that it is a good thing. It is about the same every year.”
Docks and Harbors are two separate entities when it comes to budgeting. Docks’ proposed FY19 budget is $1, 768,000 compared to the FY18 projected actuals of $1,890,000. Harbors’ proposed FY19 budget is about $4.7 million, but will actually be lower because the capital projects include $690,000 that will actually factor into the FY18 budget. The FY18 projected actuals are approximately $4.6 million.
The approved Airport FY19 will require an increase of $174,000. Some of that increase, Airport Manager Patty Wahto said, comes from an increase in work compensation and health and wellness costs projected to be up approximately $92,000.
Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove clarified that those increases are related to increases in health costs and not to unsafe work environments.
In paying for the increase in budget that moves the FY19 proposed budget to approximately $7.4 million in expenses, Wahto said the airport would need to use the Airport Fund Balance which sits with about $949,000 in unrestricted funds.
There was action taken during the meeting as changes made to the initial CIP were also approved unanimously. Moving this forward allows the CIP to part of the final budget approval by the Finance Committee before it goes to the CBJ Assembly.
There was also a unanimous vote to fund $250,000 toward a snow making machine at Eaglecrest Ski Area be moved to the “pending list” that will be discussed later in the budget process.
The funding proposed in the FY19 budget for the CIP is $25 million which is a $4.5 million decrease from last year due to a decrease in appropriations of State Marine Passenger Fees. Generally, the CBJ spends between $50 and $75 million on capital projects.
Next week’s meeting on April 18 will wrap up budget presentations that will include: Travel Juneau; Down Business Association; Juneau Economic Development Council; Aquatics Board; recommendations for Marine passenger fees; and a discussion on property tax breaks for economic development.
From there, the Finance Committee will meet every Wednesday through May 16. The public can comment on the budget at a public hearing during a Special Assembly Meeting at 5:30 p.m. April 25. The Assembly is also scheduled to make a preliminary decision on the Juneau School District budget funding during the April 25 Special Meeting and plans to adopt the school district’s general operating budget at a Regular Juneau Assembly Meeting on May 14.
• Contact reporter Gregory Philson at gphilson@juneauempire.com or call at 523-2265. Follow him on Twitter at @GTPhilson.
