FY 14-15 Adopted Budget

CITY MANAGER’S BUDGET MESSAGE

Mayor and City Council, City of Greensboro

May 20, 2014

Council Members:

development opportunities and job creation.”

As a City team, we are continuing to take progressive strides toward developing and maintaining a fiscal budget that is sustainable. We can no longer afford to react to increasing costs and stagnant revenues, instead, we are working to become a more efficient and proactive organization to ensure the City is prepared to thrive and achieve its goals despite slowly recovering economic conditions. The fiscal year 14-15 budget is built using a new development model. City leaders began taking a hard look at this budget at the outset of the fiscal year. We readily identified that we were going to be facing another budget deficit and immediately began brainstorming solutions with a goal of making reductions that could be sustained for the long term. As a second step, our Result Area teams and departments met to identify specific programs and services that could be reduced while still preserving the basic services required by our residents. The budget outlined below is one that is balanced through sustainable service reductions and fee enhancements that better align the costs for City functions with comparable costs in peer cities across the state. The primary goals used by the City team in developing this year’s budget include: an organizational focus on meeting Council and Community priorities and expectations, the provision of adequate resources to meet our core service requirements and needs, continuing to ensure the City’s triple A bond rating is maintained, and continuing to provide a highly competitive compensation and benefits package to our employees to adequately recognize their many and valued contributions to our City. Budgeting is no longer a process that we complete in two months, present to City Council, and go about the rest of our business. Budgeting is now something that we live, breath and speak as part of the daily language in the City of Greensboro. We cannot be a sustainable government in the future unless and until we become sustainable in the present. Our ongoing efforts are designed to move us in that direction. As you’ll read below, I’m confident that our resources are aligned to reach our core MAP (Management Accountability and Performance) goals while maintaining emphasis on the priorities outlined by City Council.

The City of Greensboro’s approach to economic development is strategically focused on advancing these key principles: promoting job creation, facilitating private business and expansion in our city, utilizing bond resources to advance economic development and infrastructure development (including promotion of shovel-ready sites, advancement of downtown projects and investments in East Greensboro and the Airport Area), providing enhanced access to City contracting opportunities through the continued implementation of our enhanced MWBE policy and program and making it easier to do business in and with the City. Economic Development Fund in FY 12-13. The one-half cent property tax set aside generates approximately $1.25 million per year. A variety of ED Fund projects and program support are recommended in the FY 14-15 budget. This fund will serve as the City’s primary financing source to support the Renaissance Center project, which will bring economic revitalization to the Phillips Avenue area. The recommended budget includes $150,000 for the second loan payment for the International Civil Rights Museum (an additional $350,000 will be provided from the General Fund). The fund will also provide support for the 17 Days Arts and Cultural Festival ($25,000) and the National Folk Festival ($75,000). The City of Greensboro was awarded a $1 million grant from the US Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Administration in 2013 to conduct an economic development challenge. The Strong Cities Strong Communities program solicits proposals from multi-disciplinary teams from across the country to develop transformative economic development plans for Greensboro. $250,000 from the Economic Development Fund is serving as matching funds for the grant. Proposals are due in September 2014. The High Point Road/West Lee Street Gateway Corridor remains an area of key emphasis within the City’s overall economic development strategic goals. A corridor plan was adopted for this area in 2008. In FY 13-14, several major recommendations were implemented including changing the corridor name to Gate City Boulevard (effective July 2015) and the adoption of new zoning districts to help facilitate development envisioned for the corridor. In the recommended FY 14-15 budget, $50,000 is allocated to assist property owners with sign changes to help comply with the new zoning requirements. City Council established the

Strategic Goals

“Create an environment that promotes economic

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