Belvedere council gives final nod to updated $12-million budget

Belvedere has approved a $12-million budget with slight changes from the May draft to include higher-than-expected expenses for coyote management and animal control, plus more revenue from the city’s fire tax and share of county transit taxes.

Total appropriations in the fiscal 2024-2025 budget, adopted by the City Council in a 4-0 vote June 10 with member Jim Lynch absent, include $11.05 million in capital and operating expenditures and $950,000 in transfers to the city’s pension trust and critical-infrastructure fund.

Projected revenues increased slightly to $10.76 million, an intentional appropriations gap to make use of oversized general-fund reserves for long-term budget smoothing. Belvedere will draw the general fund down by about $1.2 million, reducing reserves from 68% to 51% of expected expenditures plus the cost of fire and pension-debt service. City policy is to maintain reserves of 50%.

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