Recommended uses for a $1.5 million reserve created in the city’s budget proposal include preserving positions for the commonwealth’s attorney, sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, information technology, social services and animal control.
Portions of the money were also earmarked to keep the downtown library open full time and reverse an earlier plan to outsource management of a Parks & Recreation neighborhood center. The fund would also be tapped to pay for an increase in the city’s required contribution to the regional jail and restore $50,000 previously cut from the city’s marketing budget.
The marketing money would be used for things such as advertising, community outreach and updating existing materials and computer software.
Council reviewed these proposals during a work session last week and voiced no objections to them. The fund still has close to $276,500 left to be allocated. Council has considered simply holding the money in reserve to guard against future budget troubles.
The city already intends to establish a special $1.1 million reserve in anticipation of its debt load rising in the near future because of pending capital projects such as Heritage High School.
The money for that fund comes from two specific changes that have occurred in the budget proposal since it was first released in March.
One change involves shifting the burden for the city’s remaining landfill-related debt. The city originally planned to make the next debt payment of about $639,000 with general fund revenues, but will now instead draw the money from a separate fund created with the proceeds from Region 2000’s purchase of the landfill in 2008.
The second change involves the Lynchburg City Schools budget. The city manager recommended level funding for the schools this year, but built his proposal on the division’s original budget appropriation from last year.
The school division, in turn, built its proposal on the revised appropriation created last year after it voluntarily returned $500,000 to the city. The city is now going with the school division’s figure.
Both those alterations freed up money in the general fund and enabled the city to create what it is calling a debt service reserve. The reserve was proposed in anticipation of several major capital projects, including Heritage High School, that are looming on the horizon and will likely add to the city’s debt load.
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