by Dean Silver
There are some really important facts in the Biennial Budget. Many of them are difficult to uncover without some digging. Here are some that I found significant and interesting.
Fifteen percent (15%) of the total revenues in the BN 2021-23 Adopted Budget are supplied by new debt. The new debt is all assigned to four enterprise funds: Water, Wastewater, Streets, and Electric.
Over one half (55%) of the allocated revenue for the water fund is new debt ($24,011,700).
One third (33%) of the allocated revenue for the wastewater fund is new debt ($7,421,400).
Over one third (39%) of the allocated revenue for the streets fund is new debt ($6,396,000).
About one twelfth (8%) of the allocated revenue for the electric fund is new debt ($3,000,000).
Existing debt as of June 30, 2021 was $17,579,992.55.
The new debt budgeted would increase our current debt by 232% to $58,409,092.55.
In other words, the new debt would be 332% of the current debt.
The projected deficit for BN 2021-23 is $10,773,036.
Is this good budgeting? Is this sustainability? Food for thought.
Here are three graphs to illustrate the data:
You can view the adopted budget here:
https://www.ashland.or.us/SIB/files/Administrative%20Services/2021-23%20Budget/City_of_Ashland_2021-2023_Adopted_Biennium_Budget.pdf