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Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
Early CSD fire budget balanced for 2008-09
Fuel costs rising; $1.4 million cut in revenue projected
By Cameron Macdonald
Staff Writer
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The Cosumnes Community Services District (CSD)’s preliminary fire department budget is balanced for the next fiscal year, the CSD staff reports.
However, fuel costs are rising and slow local housing growth will cause a projected loss in revenue.
The CSD board reviewed the $42.7 million budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year during their May 13 meeting.
“We feel that the preliminary budget allows our (fire) department to meet community expectations,” CSD senior management analyst John Ebner told the CSD board.
This budget comes for review during difficult financial times for many government agencies in the Sacramento area as the economy has declined and the local housing boom has ended.
The CSD fire department management decided to reduce a fire battalion chief position earlier this year and save up to $700,000.
The district also earned a U.S. Homeland Security grant to help pay for a fourth firefighter to be added to a Galt fire station.
The CSD’s upcoming $8.3 million fleet maintenance facility that is scheduled to open next spring was not added to the preliminary budget.
Ebner said that the fire department management reviewed the budget and lists their “needs” and “wants.”
He explained: “If there was a need, it stayed in; if there was a want, it probably didn’t make it into the budget.”
Those items included $36,000 in expenses for professional conferences.
Ebner said that the majority of the fire department’s operating budget goes to salaries and benefits.
A $1.27 million increase in spending on salaries and benefits is projected, which is due to firefighter union contracts, hikes in health care costs and worker’s compensation premiums, along with the addition of a new Galt firefighter position.
A $923,000 cut in spending on services and supplies is budgeted since the fire department is buying fewer pieces of firefighting equipment.
Ebner noted that fuel costs are up by $422,000 for the next year’s budget.
The fire department’s construction program has been altered and will dedicate $1 million for the purchase of land for a future south Elk Grove fire station scheduled to open in 2013, according to a CSD staff report.
Ebner mentioned that a busy wildland fire season is expected this year and said that the state will still reimburse the CSD’s strike teams that battle wildfires in the state.
As for fire department revenues, a seven percent drop is budgeted.
The loss in revenue is reportedly caused by the lack of local housing growth. Fire plan fees for proposed buildings were cut by half a million dollars, and ambulance fees are stagnating.
The final budget will be adopted before the new fiscal year begins this July.
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