Amador County – Ione City Council last week heard that part of its near $600,000 budget deficit has come from Amador County being designated a “basic aid” county, removing some $400,000 in “triple flip” fund from the General Fund budget in less than a year.
Ione City Manager Jeff Butzlaff gave an update on one of the causes of its financial problems last Tuesday as the Council prepares to work on internal fund transfers to be able to operate until its next tax allotment comes from the state.
Butzlaff said the city wants to lay out its “more specific and succinct” transfers for an “open, transparent approach to that inter-fund transfer process,” which they need to do to survive the droughts between tax allotments. He said a lot of cities do it informally, but he wants to structure it more out front.
The city’s General Fund budget crisis has led to trying to find ways to sustain the city better in the future. He said with the transfers, they will try to finalize the 2011-2012 budget and hope to be “setting the stage for future solvency,” and they will show how it fits in with internal borrowing process.
He said the Basic Aid fiasco for the Amador County Unified School District has meant nearly $400,000 in losses for the city of Ione, including $190,000 lost last year, and $173,000 lost this year. He said “we were hit the worst” because the formula used to be population-based, including the prison population. Now it’s based on assessed valuation, which for Ione is “going down fast.”
He said Ione officials have met with Senator Ted Gaines and Assemblywoman Alyson Huber last week, about loss of the “triple flip” vehicle license fees, and the basic aid money. He said Gaines’ office commented that there was no way in heck that it was intended to take Ione’s funds in that manner.
Butzlaff said the Triple Flip has denied $400,000 so far for Ione in less than a year, which translated to two positions, “close to 10 percent of our General Fund.”
He said the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund shifted property taxes from the cities to the counties, to make up for vehicle license fee. But that breaks down when a basic aid school district is designated, as it was for ACUSD.
Butzlaff said having only one school district in the county, they have no other district to rely on.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
