Several year-end budget transfers, necessary to ensure Iola’s books remain in balance, were approved Wednesday in a special City Council meeting.
The transfers do not give the city authority to go on a shopping spree in the waning days of 2017; rather, they reflect what was spent in various accounts against what had been budgeted nearly 16 months earlier, City Administrator Sid Fleming explained.
Two of the prominent transfers went into the city’s Recreation Fund, for $25,000, and the Stores Fund, for $60,000. Revenue for the transfers came from the Wastewater Fund.
Stores Fund expenditures roughly were $27,000 over what had been forecast when Iola’s 2017 budget was finalized in summer 2016.
That’s primarily because some supplies likely were more expensive to replace than previously thought, Fleming said. Of note, the $60,000 transfer means the city will not have to transfer $33,000 to the Stores Fund from Iola’s Water Fund, which had been the original plan.
Meanwhile, the $25,000 transfer to the Recreation Fund was necessary because revenues fell short of projections, Fleming said, even though overall expenditures for the Rec Department were down this year.
Council members have suggested a funding mechanism be added to the city’s utility bills, in which customers may voluntarily tack on $5 or $10 a month to their bills to support recreational activitiies.
Council members also tweaked the city’s Library Fund, adding $7,730 to the original $210,300 budget to match revenues brought into the library through property and vehicle taxes.
The city also added $400,000 to the Major Projects fund budget from its capital projects fund. Council members paid $400,000 in February to purchase about 80 acres of land near Russell Stover Candies for economic development purposes.
IN A RELATED matter, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton broke down what higher electric rates will mean for utility payers starting in February.
In November, the Council approved a higher rate structure in an attempt to increase overall revenues by about 4 percent.
The new rate structure includes higher meter fees, from $7.50 a month to $10, plus it removes tiered pricing that allowed some customers to pay less per kilowatt hour if their consumption exceeded certain thresholds.
Hutton listed four examples, based on varying levels of consumption. Two of the examples were for houses that relied solely on electricity, while others also had natural gas-powered heating systems.
In one instance, one family’s electric bill was $45.27 this month, Hutton said. With the new rates — which take effect starting Feb. 1 — the bill would have been $52.48, or an increase of $7.21.
A single person’s home, all electric, was $55.98 this month, compared to the 65.37 for the new rates, an increase of $9.39.
Another all-electric home’s bill was $198.27 this month. With that same usage starting in February, the bill will increase to $212.84, a hike of $14.57.
The rates likely will carry an even larger wallop in February, Hutton noted, because of the recent cold snap that has forced residents to crank up their thermostats, although most Iolans rely on natural gas and not electric units for heating.
