To promote fiscal sustainability and responsible spending, the Town of Strathmore may change its financial reserves plans.
The Town's Manager of Financial Planning, Budgeting, and Analysis Tom Maier recommended several steps and ideas the Town could adopt, with the most notable one being cutting the amount of reserves in half to streamline them.
"We're going from 30 to around 15 or so, streamlining it, having it very clear in that chart that's in the policy what the uses are for, how the funds go in there, and that way we can be very strategic at budget times in how we utilize these funds," he explained.
Maier's proposed financial reserves pool for 2023.Source: screenshot taken during town council's youtube video.
Streamlining the reserves comes with many big benefits, and one of the biggest focuses is making things more straightforward.
"We've tried to make the policy where it's much easier to understand and utilize for the public, for council. We've gone to a more pooled approach of pooling the funds so we don't have all these separate funds so 10 years later we're not like 'oh, what were those dollars set aside for?' I've seen that numerous times."
Maier explained creating a solid plan for reserves is very important for fiscal health, as ensuring you have the proper amount of investment in programs will help create stability for both the Town and the taxpayer.
"reserves can be used to make sure we have dollars set aside so that way we don't get those ups and downs for taxations, utility rates, whatever it might be."
He added balance is important when planning reserves, as you want to have enough to handle anything that may come up but having too much in the reserves isn't a good thing either. In this regard, he said the Town is doing well in managing where the reserves should be.
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