CITY CORNER by Mayor Brent Hinckley

  It would seem that for the past few months there has only been one issue that the City has been dealing with, if you rely entirely on the comments in this paper and the conversations around town.  In fact, there are a number of areas that have needed continued attention from the City staff and the elected officials, and one of those is the proposal of an annual budget for the coming year.  It is required by State law that each governmental entity, including every city, must adopt a balanced budget for the next fiscal year during the month of September and set the municipal property tax rate based upon that budget.  The City of Mason budget has been discussed at several meetings and after many hours of consideration and adjusting numbers the final draft has been filed with the City Secretary and is available to anyone who would like to examine it by coming by the City office and picking up a copy.  It will be on the agenda for the September regular meeting of the City Commission for discussion and approval, but during the next four weeks you can pick up a copy and review it for yourself so that you are aware of just how your public funds are being proposed to be spent during the coming fiscal year.

      The City of Mason operates on a fiscal year that starts on November 1 each year, and this budget is very little changed from what has been working so well for us for the past few years.  There is a small raise factored in for our hard working employees, there is an allowance for the extra retirement benefits we are providing for employees who have served the City for many years, we have adjusted some of the maintenance and operation accounts for several departments to reflect material needs for those specific areas, and we have included needed improvements such as paving and updating the water system as well as the debt payments we have on previous projects and purchases so that we will be clear of all past debt during the coming fiscal year.  We have attempted to project the utility sales for the coming year, but since both electricity and water usage is very dependent on weather conditions, that is always a guessing game that we have managed rather well and hope to continue for this year. 

     One significant area that I believe most of our residents will be pleased with is that there is no proposal for increases in any utility rates or in the effective property tax rate for the City in the coming year.  We will have to adjust the property tax rate because of the increases in valuations, but we are not looking to increase it overall at this time.  The same approach is true of our utility rates, and we see no reason to change the regular rates for water, sewer or garbage.  Our electric rates are adjusted monthly to account for changes in generation costs but we have seen those rates trend down slightly over the past year and expect that to continue for most of the year to come.  I will point out that we are aware that the billing for utilities continue to increase, but that is due to increased demand and usage while the rates per unit for each of our utility services have been held steady.

    Overall, the City of Mason is in very good financial condition, as shown by our annual audit each year.  We have sufficient funds in “savings” to meet most emergency needs, we have set aside funds to handle the projects that we are currently committed for, and are planning for ways to be able to secure the funding for the projects that are planned for the future.  The City of Mason is in very good shape today, and there is no reason to believe that our community will not be a great hometown for the future as well.