Mayor explains carry-overs in city budget

COEUR d'ALENE - The Press inadvertently referred to fiscal year 2014 city budget carry-overs as "overages" in a story that published Tuesday, which resulted in some confusion among readers.

The city of Coeur d'Alene passed a $5,339,222 budget amendment Tuesday night at the city council meeting.

According to Mayor Steve Widmyer, the city carried over three multi-million-dollar projects from fiscal year 2013 because they were ultimately completed in FY 2014.

Because the city adopted the FY 2014 budget in September of 2013, they did not budget for three construction jobs that were budgeted and anticipated to be completed in FY 2013.

When those projects carried over to FY 2014, the funding for those projects also carried over but those dollars still needed to be reflected in the FY 2014 budget.

As common practice the city waits until it gets close to the end of the budget cycle, which is Sept. 30 of each year, to amend its budget for unanticipated expenses.

In this case, Widmyer said, the McEuen Park, Front Avenue and wastewater construction projects all carried over into FY 2014.

"Those three projects were all on budget," he said. "We just need to reflect the carry-over items in this year's budget."

The wastewater department carried $2.1 million into 2014, and the engineering department carried over $1.2 million. Widmyer said the $1 million added to the 2014 budget for Front Avenue was a pass-through donation from the Hagadone Corp. for the pedestrian corridor between Second and Third streets.

"That still has to be reflected in the budget," he said.