Despite a decline in population and jobs, Juneau’s economy is stable — at least for now.
But, that does not mean there aren’t concerns as the City and Borough of Juneau opened up discussions on the fiscal years 2019/2020 budget during the regular Assembly Finance Committee meeting at Assembly Chambers Wednesday night.
“I am not doom and gloom,” City Finance Director Bob Bartholomew said. “Right now the economy is stable, it’s positive, but I am cautious because we are losing residents and jobs.”
The overall combined FY 2019 budget is $333 million — which is down $2.9 million from last year. This includes about $86 million for the Juneau School District, $25 million for capital improvement projects and $69 million for general government departments.
While the city has lost 800 residents and 500 jobs over the past two years, the projected growth in tourism and revenues from city sales taxes are positives.
Bartholomew said he is being cautious with projections going forward and is not predicting another windfall with sales tax revenues. Starting two years ago, there was a 1 to 2 percent predicted decrease in sales tax revenues, but that number actually turned out to be a 1 to 2 percent increase which equaled about $3 million.
“I am projecting the same number as what I expect will be the number at the end of (2018),” Bartholomew said.
Due to the stability in the local economy and the increase in sales tax, Bartholomew said he is recommending a draw from the fund balance for expenditures. The fund balance is revenues that have been collected in the past and have yet to be used. The current fund balance sits at approximately $5 million. The projected draw, Bartholomew said, will be around $1 million.
“It is a number, that during this process, we would like to work back down to $500,000,” Bartholomew said. “There are two ways to do that, you can either not fund all the requested expenditures or you can use the federal fund. We could do that because we know we have that for at least the next two years.”
Bartholomew added that while the city can use the federal fund, it should not be something to expect three or more years down the road, based on the instability of that kind of funding.
Wednesday’s FY 2019 budget overview is just the beginning of the budget process. The Assembly Finance Committee is scheduled to 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.
