At Finance Committee Tuesday night they will be discussing the revised timeline for the 2021 budget and the city council process. Everyone thinks this process is broken, but will this solve the issues that the alders and public have with the process? This is the information that is in the packet, even though the Capital Budget timeline was pushed back – I’m surprised there is not updated information available.
PROCESS AND RULES
From the resolution
1) All proposed amendments to be reviewed and distributed in advance of the Common Council meeting must be submitted to the Finance Department (Room 406 City-County Building) no later than 4:30pm on Wednesday, November 6th, 2019. The Finance Department staff will prepare fiscal notes and distribute a list of the proposed amendments by Friday, November 8th, 2019, at 12:00 noon.
2) In the case of amendments from the floor of the Council, members may consider an amendment to a proposed amendment as well as other amendments that are written and distributed to Council members.
3) Proposed amendments must have two sponsors to be considered by the Council.
CAPITAL BUDGET TIMELINE
April 6th
- Agency Budget Kickoff
- FC (finance committee) briefing: Review Agency Guidance for 2021 Capital Budget and CIP <– Except that didn’t happen. It wasn’t on the agenda.
May 13 – Agency Capital Request Due
May 28th – Agency Capital Requests Published on line
June 8th – Finance Committee Briefing: Agency Capital Request Overview and Discussion of the City’s Bond Rating
September 1st – Executive Budget Introduced at Common Council
September 8 & 9– Agency Capital Hearings
September 14 – 18 – Finance Committee Capital Amendment Week, amendments published at noon on September 18th.
September 21 – Finance Committee Votes on Capital Amendments
November 2 – 6 – Council Amendment Week: Amendments published at non on November 6th.
November 10 – 12 – Budget Adoption
OPERATING BUDGET TIMELINE
May 11 – Finance Committee Briefing: 2021 Operating Outlook & Personnel Cost Projections
June 1 – Agency Budget Kickoff
June 8 – Finance Committee Briefing: Review Agency Guidance for 2021 Operating Budget
July 10 – Agency Operating Requests Due
July 20 – Finance Committee Briefing: Revenue Options for 2021 Budget & Levy Limit/State Aid Overview
July 27 – Finance Committee Briefing: Agency Operating Request Overview
October 6 – Executive Budget Introduced at Common Council Agency Operating Hearings
October 12 & 13 – Finance Committee Operating Amendment Week; Amendments published at noon on Oct 23rd
October 26th – Finance Committee votes on Operating Budget Amendments
November 2 – 6 – Council Amendment Week: Amendments published at non on November 6th.
November 10 – 12 – Budget Adoption
IS THIS A NEW AND IMPROVED PROCESS?
I swear I thought this was an improved process at least a little bit, but now I’m not seeing it.
My major concerns about this, and all the other budget, is it doesn’t give the alders and the public much time to figure out what is hidden in the budget and to figure out what should be changed.
Here’s my concerns.
Capital Budget
- The capital budget process started on April 6th and the Finance Committee was supposed to get a briefing on the process.
- Except that didn’t happen. It wasn’t on the agenda.
- I thought prior to instructions to staff the council wanted to discuss with the mayor the parameters they were interested in. Usually the Mayor asks for either a budget cut scenario and/or a “hold steady” budget and/or gives them a cap on what they can increase. I thought the alders wanted a discussion about the percentage of cuts and increases.
- Capital budget requests are due in 2 weeks, have you heard or seen the budget instructions yet? Usually there’s an article in the paper and memo that is released, sometimes with a press release or press conference.
- The Finance Committee is getting briefed on the agency requests only 3 weeks after they are submitted, and then nothing happens for 3 months. Maybe if they held off on that briefing a little bit it would be more informed?
- The capital budget process is a little over 7 months this year. However, the council doesn’t get the budget until 5 months into the process. When the Mayor introduces the budget, they have 15 days before their amendments are due for the finance committee. Then they wait 6 weeks until the council makes amendments. They could take some time and do this process more slowly to have more time to think.
- I think the improvement to the process is that they get a briefing in June about the capital budget requests of the departments. But again, nothing then happens for the next 3 months while they wait for the mayor to decide what is in and what is out.
- The council should give themselves more time between when the alder budget amendments come out and when the council votes on the budget amendments.
Operating Budget
- Again, they didn’t schedule in a time to talk about instructions to agencies, instead they are getting briefed on what was decided for them a week later.
- The mayor has 3 months to consider the agency requests. The council again only has 15 days to make their finance committee amendments.
- They should push back the briefing to finance committee to August so the staff can do a more through briefing – they have 2 months to work on it.
- The council should give themselves more time between when the alder budget amendments come out and when the council votes on the budget amendments.
Generally
- They need to switch this process around, they should do the operating budget first so the public and council have more time to consider it.
- 2 weeks isn’t enough time for the alders to do an adequate job, no matter how many briefings they get. The mayor should be presenting the budgets in August.
- They should consider pushing the council vote on the budget back one week to give themselves more breathing room.
- This timeline seems less specific and could be really confusing to new alders and the public. The date ranges for “amendment weeks” are not helpful.
