Property tax dive hurts CCWD 

A decline in property tax revenues is projected to cause a $278,214 operating budget shortfall at the end of the fiscal year in June for the Calaveras County Water District.

Property values continued to slide this year and associated reassessments will mean the district’s revenues from that source are expected to come in $500,697 below the budgeted $2.25 million figure for 2011-12, according to CCWD Director of Support Services Lynn Gentry, who gave a midyear budget summary presentation at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The figure is partially offset, with the district projecting an increase in wastewater revenues of $185,712.   

The board voted 5-0 to accept the figures as presented along with a plan to allocate the property tax revenues differently than had originally been planned.    

The original budget called for 75 percent of those funds to go to operating expenditures with the remaining quarter devoted to a special projects reserve fund. The revised budget makes it an 87.5-12.5 percent split to cover the operating fund shortfall.    

“We’ve cut as much as we can in operations,” CCWD General Manager Joone Lopez said. “We just cannot cut anymore.”    

The budget did not include any spending on capital improvement projects, which “for an agency of our size (is) almost unheard of today,” Lopez said. However, the district did secure a federal grant for $4.42 million to cover a major project, an upgrade to the Douglas Flat-Vallecito Wastewater Treatment Plant.    

CCWD Director Dennis Dooley asked Lopez if the budget situation will impact the ability to pay for legal costs associated with ongoing water rights negotiations conducted at the state level.    

“Everything’s coming to a head,” Lopez said. “This is not the time to take our foot off the gas pedal. It would be the worst time to do that right now.”    

Nevertheless, she did agree that the district’s efforts in that regard will be affected.   

In developing a budget for 2012-13, Gentry said the district will start with a “zero-based” budget, rather than looking to previous years as a base for expenditures.    

CCWD Board President Don Stump asked if that process will add substantially to each department’s workload.    

“Yes,” Gentry replied, “but I also believe its necessary.”