Why won’t future City of Evans revenue growth adequately fund fire and emergency services?

As shown below the City of Evans long-range revenue projections predict only very small revenue growth into the foreseeable future. Absent of major new growth in commercial and industrial building and rapid residential development it is unlikely that increases in sales and property tax revenue under current tax rates will fund improvements in any city service area, the replacement of any major capital equipment such as fire apparatus and public works equipment or major repairs to City streets and facilities. The long-range plan also does not include any increases in personnel costs with all employee wages frozen at 2009 levels with no merit pay increases.
The illustration below shows the projected long-term structural gap between revenue projections and the needs of capital replacement, major facility and street maintenance, asset management plan funding and restoring merit pay in the City pay system. This gap is approximately $1.5 million per year. This clearly shows that the current and projected City revenue will not be adequate to address the critical fire and emergency services needs in the future. It can be argued that funds could be transferred from other service areas for fire and emergency services. This in fact has already occurred in the 2010 reduction-in-force described below. In the spring of 2010 the City corrected a similar but past structural gap of $1,000,000 in the general fund. This correction involved reduction in supplies and services, asset management plan and major capital funding. In particular the capital replacement of fire apparatus and public works equipment was completely removed. Many services reduced were in parks upkeep, fewer recreation programs and reduced facility maintenance. To make an adjustment of this magnitude all personnel wages were frozen at 2009 levels and the longevity benefit eliminated. Most painfully, 22 full-time positions were eliminated through a reduction-in-force including laying off 18 current full-time employees (1 police and 1 fire). In accordance with the City Council’s priority of public safety, police and fire were the least impacted by these reductions.