From your City Administrator,
Michael Schulte
From approximately August through November, city staff and the city council work on completing the next year's budget. Each year is always unique with different projects, equipment, and new items to consider. Inflation, as you have heard and know, makes a large impact on costs. On the flip side, with higher costs of goods, sales tax revenue the city collects has also increased the past 3 years. This helps the city budget for higher prices of goods, wages, insurance, equipment, and so forth.
Each year, the city approves an appropriation ordinance which states where funds will be spent for the next year and what types of revenue numbers to expect. The appropriation ordinance is a grouping of funds and somewhat of a summary of revenues and expenses. At a quick glance, it is hard to determine from the ordinance alone where revenues are coming from and where expenses will go towards. For 2024, two documents were created to help explain the 2024 budget more easily. The first is the 2024 Budget Fund Narrative. This document explains each fund and what is expected to occur in 2024 for each fund. It also includes charts that show sources of revenues and where expenses are allocated. The next document is the City of Volga 2024 Budget Charts. This shows each fund and past history of the fund. It states the 2024 budget numbers, the 2023 budget numbers, and actual revenues and expenses from previous years. Both documents go hand-in-hand so that you can read the narrative and then view each chart that corresponds with the fund in order. The goals of these two documents are for anyone to be able to pick it up and gain a better understanding of the 2024 budget, provide greater transparency, and help guide future budgets. The 2024 Budget Appropriations Ordinance was passed with a second reading and approval on November 20.
All budget documents, agendas, and minutes can be found at this link.
Have a great December!
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