City Council Agenda and Packet 2015 09 21 BUDGET

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Purpose Fiscal Policies The purpose of the City of Louisville's Fiscal Policies is to set guidelines for managing the fiscal affairs of the City. The policies will commit the City to calculate specific information about the City's current fiscal condition, past and future trends, as well as provide guidelines for making fiscal decisions and assuring that the City continues to pursue a financially prudent course. These policies may be added to or modified by Council resolution. Introduction The City of Louisville is an organization charged with providing a wide range of services (i.e., elections, drainage, streets, planning, engineering, police protection, parks, libraries, wastewater treatment, water, and recreation). Revenues to support these services are gathered from a large number of sources including property taxes, user fees, fines, sales tax, franchise tax, State sources, and others. The City's Fiscal Policy Plan has been written in order to help the City provide services in a prudent manner within the bounds of available revenue. (Adopted May 15, 1984, Resolution No. 19) General Policies 1. That the City of Louisville shall calculate financial indicators consistent with Appendix "A ". All indicators shall be compiled each year before preparation of the annual budget. Each new year's indicators shall be compared with those indicators available from past years building a historical record up to a total of ten (10) years. Any indicator, which shows a warning trend when compared with the past year, shall be more closely analyzed for reasons why the change has occurred. 2. The City of Louisville capital facilities estimate their remaining useful life and replacement cost. This inventory shall include streets, drainage facilities, buildings, parks, water and wastewater systems, alleys, sidewalks and curbs, traffic signals, and any other real or personal property items having an original cost of $5,000 or 7 more. (As amended August 15, 2006 Ordinance No. 1498, Series 2006) 3. As a provider of public services, the City of Louisville will seek to provide only public services that citizens require or support and for which they are willing to pay. 4. The City will take positive steps to improve the productivity of its programs and employees, and seek ways to eliminate duplicate functions within the City government and semi - autonomous agencies in the community. 5. Although the City will finance projects on a pay -as- you -go basis, Council may conclude, based on study of the economy and other matters, that the most equitable way of financing a project that benefits the entire community will be debt financing (pay -as- you -use) in order to provide the services in a timely manner. 6. During the annual budget process, the City will reassess services and service levels. Council may seek citizen input by surveys, citizen forums, and similar methods for this evaluation. Debt Policies 7. The City of Louisville will not use long -term debt to finance current operations. Long- term borrowing will be confined to capital improvements or similar projects with an extended life, which cannot be financed from current revenues. 8. Debt payments shall not extend beyond the estimated useful life of the project being financed. The City will try to keep the average maturity of general obligation bonds at or below twenty (20) years. 9. The City of Louisville will maintain good communications with bond rating agencies concerning its financial condition. 10. Total general obligation debt will not exceed three percent (3 %) of the actual value of the taxable property within the City. 11. The City of Louisville will not utilize lease purchasing except in the case of an extreme financial emergency with specific approval of