Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

DATE:	07/05/2012
TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Casey Toomay, Budget Manager
CC:	Cynthia Wagner, Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager / City Clerk
RE:	2013 Budget Hearing

Please place the following item on the agenda for consideration of the City Commission at their meeting on July 10, 2012.

Staff requests the City Commission authorize publication of the notice of budget hearing to be held August 7, 2012.

Budget Hearing Required

Under K.S.A 79-1801, the governing body shall certify the amount of ad valorem tax to be levied on or before August 25. K.S.A. 79-2929 states that prior to filing the adopted budget, a public hearing must be held and that notice of the hearing must be given at least 10 days prior to the hearing. Pursuant to K.S.A. 79-2933, the hearing required to be held on the annual budget “shall be held not less than ten (10) days prior to the date on which they shall certify their annual levies to the county clerk as required by law.”

Notice of Public Hearing

The required budget summary/notice of public hearing document will set the upper limits of the 2013 budget and the mill levy. Once the summary is published, the budget cannot be increase, nor can the mill levy.

The attached notice establishes a maximum expenditure level for 2013 of $174,271,735. An increase of 0.87 mill is recommended.

While the recommended budget includes expenditures for City utilities, it does not establish utility rates for 2013. Rates are established annually by separate ordinance. Should the City Commission decide to set rates at a level below those assumed in the recommended budget, expenditures in these funds will be reduced accordingly.

Action Item

Staff requests the City Commission authorize publication of the notice of budget hearing to be held August 7, 2012.