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San Manuel Miner
At the July 30, 2015 special meeting of the Town Council, the 2015-16 budget was passed. The budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 will be $2,536,908. The Town Council also passed an ordinance amending the effective date of the transaction privilege sales tax which was increased from two to four percent. The effective date will be Sept. 1, 2015.
Pat Walker of Walker Consulting has been working on the budget since January and had to totally reconstruct the records for fiscal years 2013, 2014 and 2015. There were numerous issues to reconcile. The general ledger was not up to date and/or there were incorrect entries made for fiscal years 2013 – 2015. There were missing documents and the budgets were not being followed by the previous administration, reducing the general fund and forcing the town to live “paycheck to paycheck.”
The 2015-16 budget includes the sales tax increase which is expected to increase General Fund revenues by $86,181 and a property tax levy of $55,175. The budget that was passed also assumes the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office contract, which is still in negotiations, will be approved.
The State expenditure limitation is $906,180. Pat Walker has said if the Town of Mammoth does not contract out Police, Mammoth will need to operate on $294,406 for Fiscal Year 2016 and $294,406 will need to be cut from the budget of $906,180. If the Town violates this limit, the penalties are severe and the Town could lose up to a third of its state shared revenues.
The Mammoth Town Council plans to go back to the voters to ask for the approval of the Home Rule Option, which if passed would allow the town to spend all of the funds it generates and collects.
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
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