Significant increases in CalPERS pension projected
(City of Rocklin, 2019)
Rocklin, CA- The Rocklin City Council adopted a balanced Fiscal Year 2019-2020 budget on Tuesday, June 25, with $72,714,500 listed in operating expenses and $12,944,500 for capital expenditures.
This budget is fiscally responsible and represents a sound operational plan for the upcoming year. Although the City anticipates the local economy will continue to be strong through June 2020, Rocklin is taking a conservative approach by controlling service expansion and expanding reserves where possible.
Financial Outlook
While the revenue outlook is generally positive with modest increases in property tax and sales tax, the City is experiencing increased operational costs and a gradual slowing of residential development. Commercial development remains strong.
Over the past 10 years, the population of Rocklin increased 26.5 percent from 54,754 in FY 2009-2010 to 69,249 today. Yet the number of full-time and permanent part-time employees has decreased from 280 employees to 258 employees over the same time period. City employees have been taking on more work, and labor groups have been strong partners in helping control payroll growth, reduce retirement benefits, and share in pension costs.
Despite these efforts, costs have risen for FY 2019-2020. Increases in operational costs can be broken down into three main categories: professional services or contract work, compensation, and utilities.
Professional services, or what may be better understood as city contracts for outside work, are up $1.55 million when compared to the FY 2018-2019. The rising costs of landscape maintenance and increases in outside legal fees are two of the largest contributors in this area.
Compensation costs have also risen by $1.85 million, with pension costs accounting for $733,400 of that number. The pension increases are driven by CalPERS requiring additional contributions from its member organizations to meet the future obligation of the retirement fund. The City anticipates significant increases in CalPERS pension contributions for the next five to seven years.
Utility costs have also increased $425,800 to $2.64 million in FY 2019-2020.
Major Projects
With rising costs and the local development activity showing signs of slowing, the priority in the City’s FY 2019-2020 budget is to pay current obligations and be conservative with new projects.
Three areas of planned expenditures for the year do include:
- Lease revenue bonds will be used for construction of a new spray park at Johnson-Springview Park ($798,800), City Hall refurbishment ($550,000), and the remodel of Fire Station 2 ($890,000) and Fire Station 1 ($230,000).
- Sunset Whitney Recreation Area trail repairs and reopening of a portion of the property is anticipated to cost $200,000, paid from the Capital Construction Tax. A payment of $535,600 will be made toward the purchase of SWRA, funded by $286,000 in Community Park Fees and $249,000 in Oak Tree Mitigation funds. An additional four similar payments, totaling $2,134,018, will be made over the next four fiscal years to complete the purchase of the property.
- Capital budget projects will also include more than $6.5 million in street repair and construction and $3,220,000 for the Pacific Street roundabout project.
Conclusion
The City is focused on operating within its means in order to continue to provide the high level of core services and public facility maintenance residents deserve. The City of Rocklin is in a stable financial position thanks to the leadership of City Council.
Visit www.rocklin.ca.us/post/city-rocklin-budgets to learn more about Rocklin’s FY 2019-2020 budget.
City of Rocklin. (2019, July). Fiscal year 2019-2020 budget prioritizes residents and responsibility [Press release]. Retrieved from https://rocklin.ca.us/news/fiscal-year-2019-2020-budget-prioritizes-residents-and-responsibility
