City departments in Burlington, Vermont have given their budget presentations to the Board of Finance.
The Board is the fiscal oversight committee of the Burlington City Council. It includes the mayor and four councilors. During a series of meetings, each city department has been presenting an overview of its 2024 budget proposal. At Monday evening’s meeting, the last of the city departments outlined their fiscal plans.
The mayor’s office indicated that costs for its four employees, additional seasonal employees, overtime and benefits total about $517,000. General operating expenses totaled $16,900. Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Shad, a non-voting member of the Board of Finance, was pleased that operating expenses in that office had diminished.
“It's small, and everyone's always like, ’it's small!’ But every little bit counts, noting that their operating expenses went from about $22,000 in FY ‘23, to about $17,000 for FY ’24,” Shad said. “So every department that can cut their operating expenses, I'm grateful.”
Among the most detailed presentations was from Community and Economic Development Office Director Brian Pine. CEDO’s $11.4 million budget supports a variety of initiatives including affordable housing, community justice and victims’ services, and homelessness issues. Pine noted that seventeen employees work in City Hall with another 15 at the Community Justice Center.
“We are an unusual department and most of our dollars actually go back out the door as opposed to funding salaries and benefits,” Pine said. “And that's in the form of grants and loans and other programs. You know, we serve as a conduit and an intermediary for funding to make sure that it flows to the community to accomplish the goals and objectives that the city has set. The general fund number is slightly less than last year by about $70,000 less.”
Fire Chief Michael LaChance outlined a 2024 budget that includes $14.9 million in expenses, saying it will maintain an increase of three full-time equivalent positions.
“This was negotiated to reduce our overtime burden and help us to retain full staffing as much as possible,” LaChance said. “We also worked to see a 20 percent increase in the EMS supply budget to support increased costs. And on the flip side, we are seeing that revenue as well. So we should be able to cover these costs pretty easily with the increased revenue. And then all other operating budget expenses it's pretty well status quo.”
Burlington’s Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department is undergoing a reorganization and Director Kim Carson explained why the proposed budget of $1.7 million is down for Fiscal Year 2024.
“We just weren't up to capacity to do some of the initiatives that we wanted to do,” Carson said. “So we requested to move over some funds. What you'll see in our line item moving forward is we kept some of them the same, but we redefined some one’s so we’ll be better understanding how we're spending our money.”
Mayor Miro Weinberger is proposing a $94 million 2024 budget.
