Despite some deficit spending, town approves 2015 budget

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The Pagosa Springs Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to formally adopt the 2015 budget, set the mill levy, and appropriate funds for 2015.

The town’s budget is broken down into six separate funds: general, capital improvement, impact fee, lodgers’ tax, geothermal enterprise and conservation trust.

The general fund

The general fund is expected to have $3,995,472 worth of revenues next year and $2,521,883 worth of expenditures.

Breaking this down further, the majority of revenues for this fund will come from taxes and contracts, including property tax ($75,846), special ownership/MVL ($13,500), cigarette tax ($16,000), gas franchise ($14,000), telephone franchise ($9,000), cable TV franchise ($7,000), ground lease ($79,825) and severance tax ($5,000).

However, the largest source of revenue by far is from sales tax, which is expected to generate $1,895,621 for the general fund.

Other sources of revenue for the general fund include licenses and permits ($94,000), intergovernmental revenue ($60,130), charges for services ($70,900), fines and forfeits ($41,500), miscellaneous ($9,000) and the Ross Aragon Community Center ($130,235).

All together, the projected income for 2015 is expected to be $2,521,557. When this amount is added to the $1,473,915 remaining as cash reserves from this year, the total revenue for 2015 is expected to be $3,995,472, as mentioned above.

On the other side of the equation, expenditures from the general fund include public safety ($803,622), recreation ($179,567), community support services ($116,763) and general government ($1,421,931).

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