Sedona Fire District adopts 2009/2010 Budget with reductions in both budget amount and tax rate

SEDONA, AZ – (June 29, 2009) – At the June 24th governing board meeting, the Sedona Fire District (SFD) governing body unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2010 budget. The governing board, staff, residents, and other community stakeholders spent more than six months on the development of the 2010 budget, which included six public meetings to facilitate citizen input.

Early on, the Governing Board asked staff to create a budget process that would be more transparent, more inclusive, and one that focused on the efficient delivery of core services.

“I think the product we’ve come up with is a solid, well thought out, conservative financial plan for the upcoming year,” said SFD Fire Board member Charles Christensen.

The final operating budget appropriation is $12,685,308, which is a 7.3% reduction over the current year FY2009 budget. The overall adopted budget, which includes operations, capital outlay, debt service, and contingencies, is $15,174,838, which represents a 4.7% decrease over the current year budget.

The Sedona Fire District is also lowering its mil levy from $1.65 per $100 assessed valuation to $1.55, which will result in a 6% decrease for taxpayers. Karen Daines, SFD Business Director commented, “This is a budget that meets the operational requirements of the organization, but significantly scales back on the nice-to-haves in order to preserve the have-to-haves as we navigate through these difficult economic times.

Our focus is on the efficient and effective delivery of core services.”

The District has developed new budget documents which are intended to provide citizens and other stakeholders with clear, understandable, and comprehensive budget and financial information. These documents include information on financial policies, non-financial goals and objectives, funds and fund structure, revenue and expenditure detail by function, authorized positions, and a five year capital improvement program.

The complete budget detail document is available on the SFD Website, at www.Sedonafire.org.

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