Budget Document 2019-20

Budget Message - Fiscal Year 2020

Each year the City Council reviews the outcomes from the prior fiscal year and turns their eyes toward the next one.  As the Council identifies outcomes for the upcoming fiscal year, staff can know how to allocate scarce resources.  This Budget Document contains the financial plan for 2020 fiscal year (July 1 - June 30).  The budget outlines operational, capital improvement, and project priorities for Nephi City.  

Nephi City has seen many changes over the last few years.  New housing development has been on the rise and indications are that it will continue.  Due to this anticipated growth, the city has embarked in a number of projects that update/upgrade the city’s infrastructure.  These projects include the expansion of the city’s water system, a new substation, and a secondary natural gas line connection.  The city has also updated its fee structures and instituted impact fees to help fund these growth-related projects.  

In the upcoming fiscal year budget there have also been some structural changes.  Since the city has many community-owned utilities, many of the utility costs to other city departments have been absorbed by the utility funds.  In order for department managers to more accurately track their costs and efficiently use their resources, the budget for the upcoming fiscal year contains new line items for utility costs.  To assist the departments in the General Fund with the additional costs, there have been increases to the contributions from the utility funds to the General Fund.  The utility funds will also see additional revenues from those city department utility payments.  Not only will the costs be more transparent, but managers will now be able to manage those costs the same way they do with other line items.  A table showing these changes in utility costs is found in the "Other Budget Information" page in the online budget document.  

In planning for the upcoming year, the City Council prioritized the following items broken down by General Services and Utilities:

General Service Priorities/Outcomes

  • Use the bridge engineering report to begin improvements to bridges
  • Allocate Public Works Building costs to General Service departments
  • Replace the septic tank at the airport
  • Water line (sprinkler) extension at Vine Bluff Cemetery
  • Irrigation connection at Golf Course
  • Assist School District with gym floor refinish
  • Purchase of Golf Course mower
  • Pursue subset of phase I cremation garden design
  • Savings for water line extension at airport
  • Election Funding
  • Library Book Budget increase
  • Archive Social funding (records retention for social media accounts)
  • Citizen’s Academy support funding
  • Police Station Improvements
  • Lieutenant Position Salary adjustment
  • GIS software
  • Staff computers for Finance department
  • Uniform allowance for Parks department
  • Purchase of accounts receivable module
  • Urban Forestry
  • Ball Fields Lip Removal
  • Golf Course clubhouse improvements
  • Savings for Tar Pot in Streets equipment

Utility (Enterprise Fund) Services

  • Meter replacements - Natural Gas
  • SCADA/Outage management system - Power
  • Underground wire puller - Power
  • New pipe liner - Sewer
  • North substation - Power
  • New Vac Truck Savings - Sewer
  • New Backhoe - Natural Gas
  • Master Plan/ Power Quality Study - Power
  • New cans - Solid Waste

Last year the residents of Nephi City voted in a Parks, Arts, and Recreation (PAR) Tax.  This tax will assist with funding for several recreation outcomes from prior years.  Projects include a soccer field complex, a recreation center, and improvements at Orgill Fields.  The soccer field complex project is already underway.  Grant funding will be needed before the recreation center project will be feasible and a contract with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will need to be finalized before improvements can occur on the Orgill Fields.  Aside from the PAR tax, the budget assumes rate adjustments in the Electric Fund and Sewer Fund based on Council direction received to this point.  

The budget document presents the planned revenues and expenses for each city department for the upcoming fiscal year as well as any planned capital projects.   Thanks go to the staff for assisting in the preparation of this document, particularly the Finance Department, and to the City Council for their community vision and priorities.

- Seth Atkinson - City Administrator

Budget Document

Table of Contents