The Burlington, Vermont Board of Finance reviewed the city’s proposed budget this week after the new mayor announced there is a larger than expected shortfall.
Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak says the 2025 budget deficit has increased from $9 million to about $13 million.
During public comments, retired Public Works Director Steve Goodkind faulted sloppy bookkeeping and a lack of regular departmental reports.
“Something is way out of whack. You don't know what you're doing,” Goodkind said. “You're going to plan fiscal ’25 and you don't have a good handle on ’24? Good luck. I suspect it's even worse and you don’t know. This is crazy. You’ve got to do a lot better and a lot sooner because you're planning for a year that I think right now you're flying blind into.”
Chief Administrative Officer Katherine Schad said her report on the budget shortfall would focus on the general fund and she would review the enterprise and capital funds later.
“The reason why we have this shortfall is because for this current budget year we decided to use one time funds to fund ongoing costs, specifically salary costs to the tune of $2.2 million for police and fire.”
Schad outlined other costs impacting the budget including loss of ARPA funds, increased operating costs and a hike of more than $2 million in health care costs. She noted retirement costs are rolled into property tax revenues. She told the Board that despite the negatives, the city is offering a list of possible solutions.
“We are getting very close to finalizing the operational efficiency study,” Schad reported. ”We do have a draft of our user fee study about what fees we might be able to increase and how much extra revenue that could bring in. There are some ARPA funds left over from closed programs. We have been generating lots of other potential solutions.”
Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak said she believes the unexpected increased deficit can be addressed.
“Solutions as well as a whole host of other options that are still rolling in from department heads show the level of creativity and the seriousness for which people are really trying to offer ideas that keep the city affordable, address sustainable budgeting practices but really starting to look forward so that we are not over reliant on one time funds and then having a similar conversation every fiscal year, and that we're really taking an honest look at the services we are providing the city,” the Mayor said.
North District Independent Mark Barlow expressed concerns about how the budget is being characterized.
“The increase in retirement costs weren’t included in December, nor was the increase in debt service,” noted Barlow. “I think that was because they really don't pose gaps in the structural budget. They're sort of self-correcting. You know, obviously they have impacts on the taxpayer and in the case of the retirement benefit increases on the employees as well. But they really don't pose a challenge for us in budgeting. And so I just want to call that out because that's $2 million of this additional $4.1 million that we're talking about. We're characterizing the budget gap differently than we were in in December.”
