City Council adopts 2021 budget with surplus despite COVID-19

The Mountain Brook City Council on Sept. 28 adopted the city’s budget for Fiscal Year 2021,which began Oct. 1, 2020, and will end Sept. 30, 2021.

The city will have total revenues of about $40.4 million, expenses of $40.2 million and a budgeted surplus of about $205,000, said Councilman Lloyd Shelton, chair of the council’s Finance Committee.

The good news is the city’s financial outlook is much better than it was in the late spring when officials began to assess projected losses in tax revenue due to COVID-19.

When City Manager Sam Gaston, City Clerk Steve Boone and the city’s department heads began meeting in June to put together a draft budget, there was a projected deficit of $1.4 million, Shelton said.

However, he said the city arrived at a surplus after a lot of work by those officials.

“Thanks to Steve and Sam and all the department heads for making this an easier budget than we thought it would be,” City Council President Virginia Smith said.

There were three “big-ticket” items where the city was able to make significant savings, Shelton later told Village Living.

Officials delayed improvements to Jemison Trail after failing to receive a grant to help fund them, and this delay saves the city several hundred thousand dollars, Shelton said.

Mountain Brook reduced the amount of money it will send to the Alabama state retirement system this year to help pay down the city’s unfunded pension liability of about $30 million.

For the last three years, the city sent the state more than is required — roughly $600,000 more annually — to begin reducing that liability, Shelton said.

This year, the city will reduce that payment and save about $300,000, Shelton said.

The city saved about $300,000 by reducing the amount it will pay into a trust fund used to pay for retiree health insurance.

“We’ve been overfunding that over the years so we don’t have that same kind of unfunded obligation on our books,” Shelton said.

A factor in the city’s favor during COVID-19 is that property taxes — a relatively stable funding source — makes up about 40% of the city’s revenue.

“That’s a good thing, despite all this craziness,” Shelton said.

Mountain Brook’s reliance on property taxes rather than sales taxes gives it a buffer against the pandemic’s negative impact on retail and restaurants.

Sales taxes make up about 30% of the city’s revenue, and business licenses and personal property tax about 10%, Shelton said.

Mountain Brook is in good shape financially compared to a lot of municipalities and has no plans to reduce its workforce, Shelton said.

“When we look and see cities all over the country … making some very hard decisions, we are very fortunate that there will be no furloughs at this time,” he said.

In fact, the city is giving its employees a 0.5% cost of living adjustment, Shelton said.

The city will run deficits in a couple of areas, the largest — about $2.9 million — coming in the capital projects fund.

A lot of the money is being spent for work on the city’s bridges and athletic fields, Shelton said.

In public works, the city is budgeting $1.6 million for roads, bridges and other infrastructure improvements and $2.4 million for sidewalks, including engineering and planning.

The city will also spend $3.4 million on improvements to the athletic complex and $800,000 in improvements to the field at Cherokee Bend Elementary.