The St. Lucie West Services District has plenty of extra cash to stay open in a crunch, such as a devastating hurricane. But that’s because of self-discipline. There’s no rule saying it must.
At its last regular meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved holding a public hearing to make itself get a proverbial piggy bank.
“What we’re trying to do is mainly to set up a policy not just for the current (Board of Supervisors), but future boards to have a minimum fund balance,” said Dennis Pickle, manager and utilities director.
The district is a Community Development District, which is a hybrid creation of the State Legislature. The districts operate as governmental bodies to deliver some municipal services, such as water and sewer. The services district also handles stormwater management in St. Lucie West.
Unlike other governmental bodies, such as school systems, the districts don’t have state-mandated obligations to maintain fund balances, but can give themselves the requirement to keep extra cash on hand.
“Your reserve fund should never dip below that 17 percent (of your operating budget),” Pickle said.
That’s about enough money for two months of operating should a governmental body’s cash flows shut off. That’s the amount Pickle is recommending that the board adopt as a minimum fund-balance. “Most governments like to keep 25 percent, a three-month fund balance,” Pickle said. The district has done much better. It has a fund balance nearly double that. “It’s about 45 percent at this point. We have built some of that up so we could do some stormwater projects.”
The district is poised to approve an about-$3.5 million operating budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. That’s unusually high and exceeds the expected income, because the district is taking care of some of those longstanding needed projects.
For example, the district will build a new office in coming months. That’ll cost about $1 million. The district has been using a modular office building since 2010. During that time, it’s kept utility rates and assessments steady.
The operating budget doesn’t include the utility fund, which is about $9.1 million. That’s a separate account governed by bond issuances.
For more, visit the district’s web site, www.slwsd.org.
