Mayor's Budget

May 2, 2023

Honorable Riverton City Councilmembers and Residents:

After much deliberation with city staff, I am pleased to submit for your consideration the Mayor’s Budget for the fiscal year 2023-2024. This proposal takes in account the many needs of the city, as well as the strategic priorities that were identified by the City Council.

Our city continues to be fiscally well-positioned for the future while holding taxes and fees for residents to a minimum. Here are a few financial highlights to note as you review my budget:

No proposed fee or tax increases.
Expenditures in the general fund are up just 4% year over year, and roughly 30% over the last 10 budget years—essentially the rate of inflation.
Expenditures across all funds are $83.1M. The differences from last year are largely attributed to additional grants and funding for large projects.
Sales tax revenues projected to rise from $12 million to $13.5 million.
We have healthy projected ending fund balances across our general fund (30% of revenues), REDIIF ($3.5 million), Water (280 working capital days on hand) and Secondary Water (170 working capital days on hand) funds, in line with the direction the council has established.
The city maintains an AAA bond rating and has the lowest debt per capita in over 20 years at $753 per resident.

The following projects in the budget align with the city’s strategic priorities and operational needs:

Culinary Water

The Green Well Project, which could generate nearly half of the city’s culinary water needs, is largely funded by Salt Lake County dollars, and should be finished by the end of this calendar year. The county has contributed $3 million for the project in addition to $650,000 of ARPA funds.

Secondary Water

In May 2020, Riverton City began installing secondary (pressurized irrigation) water meters on all properties within city boundaries. In order to complete this project, an additional $12.6 million of ARPA and state funds have been budgeted to install these water meters on the remaining two-thirds of connections without a meter.
We have heard from residents and continue to put $538,000 towards the improving of secondary water filtration and pressurization.
$1.1 million has been budgeted to purchase secondary water shares. The city anticipates needing an additional 1,000 water shares by build out of the city; this budget will get approximately half of the needed water shares.

Improvements to the Community Center

$1.2 million in grants from Salt Lake County and $1.5 million from the city for improvements to the Sandra N. Lloyd Community Center and surrounding grounds which will include a plaza and outdoor amphitheater.

Welby Canal Trail & Bridge

We have received $2 million from the county to put in a 10-foot-wide asphalt trail between 12600 S and 13400 S, and a pedestrian bridge across 13400 S. This is an exciting project as one of our strategic priorities has been to improve trails throughout our community.

Street Maintenance

$2.5 million has been allocated for road maintenance, sidewalk repair, adding sidewalk where we currently do not have it, bike lane projects and other miscellaneous roadway maintenance.

I am recommending we change the title of city manager to that of city administrator, with essentially the same responsibilities. Having the city administrator and all department heads appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council creates more efficiency, eliminates confusion and allows the mayor as CEO to fulfill its executive role that is expected by the residents. As the Mayor is the CEO and only citywide elected official, residents rightly insist and expect the mayor to ultimately be the one directing the affairs of the city.

I am grateful for the diligent work of our city councilmembers and city employees. I also appreciate our residents and the standard they have set. Collectively, the contributions made by these three groups have helped Riverton City become what it is today: a thriving, tight-knit community that is fiscally responsible and continuously discovering new opportunities. I look forward to what the future has in store for our great city.

I encourage all to read through this budget and provide feedback to your elected representatives. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions or comments.

Respectfully,

Mayor Trent Staggs