There are two aspects of the budget to consider: Operational Expenditures and Capital Improvements.
Operational Expenditures
Operational expenditures include the Recreation Department staff and overhead costs to support the programs. The 5-Year Parks and Recreation Master Plan provides a good Fiscal Analysis on pages 10 to 12. I have included Page 12 below. The city recovers 55% to 70% of operating expenditures through revenue generation (excluding grants over the past six years) and has been supplementing the shortfall through contributions from the General Fund. The City Commission must approve the budget at the first meeting in June and based on information in the agendas of these meetings, I calculated that the average budgeted contribution from the General Fund over the past 10 years has been $255,660.
This year’s budgeted contribution from the General Fund is $313,595.
Capital Improvements
There is a link to the 2024-25 Budget on the front page of the city’s website. Pages 104 to 110 of the PDF file list the capital outlay requests by department, with manager revisions resulting in the list of items budgeted. I have included the pages below that contain parks and recreation items. The budget for capital projects related to parks and recreation for the fiscal year is:
- Municipal Services Department:
- Requested: $995,000
- Approved: $280,000
- Recreation Department:
- Requested: $2,091,070
- Approved: $173,930
Total Capital Budget for this year: $453,930.
Overall Budget Summary
The total 2024-2025 City Budget related to Parks and Recreation is $767,525.
Please note that this budget is at the discretion of the city administration and commission. Currently, there is no guarantee of a set amount being allocated to recreation. For example, $120,000 was budgeted for a pickleball court installation at the Cultural Center, but the City Commission voted not to move forward with this project. When I inquired if the $120,000 could then be used for overdue parks and recreation maintenance items, I was informed that since the money was being transferred from the General Fund, it could be reallocated to any budget line item approved by the City Commission.
I found the information included below very informative and hope you do as well.
