The Stansbury Park Service Agency board approved a tentative $1 million 2017 budget during its meeting Wednesday.
The general fund budget, presented by service agency manager Randall Jones, is smaller than the previous year’s approved budget of $1.25 million.
The capital improvement fund is slated to include $1.3 million in expenses, which is nearly six times more than the $234,000 in the 2016 budget.
The board approved the tentative budget by a 5-0 vote, with board member Glenn Oscarson absent.
Spending for full-time and part-time employee salary and wages is budgeted to rise from $372,200 to $399,011, including a 1.5-percent cost-of-living adjustment approved by the service agency board at its Oct. 26 meeting. Spending on salary and wages also includes the creation of a full-time gardener position.
Board member Rod Thompson said he wanted to revisit the service agency policy of providing cost-of-living adjustments and merit raises for employees, especially for Jones who serves in an appointed position, at the beginning of next year.
Taxes for Stansbury Park residents are expected to decrease under the proposed budget, which sees a $20,416 increase in property tax revenue due to new growth, Jones said. The budget’s general fund revenue currently includes $38,793 from the general fund reserve, but Jones said that may not be necessary to balance the budget.
“When I get a little bit more time and feedback from you tonight, I’m going to go and massage that,” he said. “I think I can get that down to where we don’t have to take anything out of the fund reserve to make it work.”
The golf course maintenance line was increased to $35,000 from $10,000 in the 2016 budget. The increase includes the service agency reinvesting a $20,000 lease payment back into the golf course, as well as funds for pond maintenance.
The service agency’s $1.3 million capital improvement fund expenses will be covered by $300,000 in impact fees, $425,000 in grant funding and a $588,000 transfer from the fund reserve.
Jones said projects for the 2017 budget include the development of the Schooner and North Port parks, which will be covered by $300,000 in impact fees. The bulk of that money, $230,000, will go toward creation of the park on Schooner Drive.
The $425,000 in grant money is earmarked for use in a $25,000 development of soccer fields for the community’s elite soccer program and $400,000 in federal grants for trails past the mill pond and along the sound wall in Stansbury Park.
There will be a public hearing on the service agency’s proposed budget during the board’s Dec. 14 meeting. The final budget is expected to be voted on during the same meeting.