Official: Fees to balance budget

The Newport Beach City Council is poised to adopt a $265 million budget Tuesday with an emphasis on new parks and building projects including a new city hall and senior center.

Most of the money for the larger projects would come from outside sources such as fees from big land developments and private donations, but the city also would fund some with bond issues.

The city expects $224 million in revenue next year, $32 million less than its projected spending. Looks can be deceiving though, said Councilman Mike Henn, a member of the finance committee.

“The budget this year is a balanced budget, although our expenditures are higher than our receipts,” said Henn.

The budget is balanced for the most part, he said, because money for many of the city’s large building projects on the budget won’t come from the city’s coffers.

Officials may break ground on a new Oasis Senior Center as early as January 2009.

The center set a goal of raising about $4.5 million in private donations last year for a new $20 million senior center.

About $10 million for the project will come from city funding, and another $5.6 million in funding will come from park fees the Irvine Co. had to pay the city for the North Newport Center Planned Community Project, which the city approved last year.

Several large private donations, including a $2.5 million gift from Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, have put the project within reach, Henn said

“This is a time where we are looking at a number of large projects, and we need to determine how we will pay for those,” said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau.

The city also will look at funding several large projects with bond issues over the course of the next decade or longer, including a new city hall and park, Sunset Ridge Park at the corner of West Coast Highway and Superior Avenue, a new police station and a new lifeguard headquarters.

About $3 million is budgeted for next year for designing and permitting a new city hall. The city also will get $27 million in development fees from the Irvine Co. from the North Newport Center Planned Community Project for the building.

“This is the first big year for capital programs, and we are moving as quickly as possible on a new city hall, Sunset Ridge Park and other faculties that need attention,” Councilman Keith Curry, who chairs the city finance committee, said earlier this year.

The budget is available for public review on the Newport Beach city website, www.city.newport-beach.ca.us/.

BUDGET PROPOSALS

ARTIFICIAL TURF FOR BONITA CREEK PARK: $1 million

CITY SPONSORSHIP OF JANUARY 2009 NEWPORT BEACH RESTAURANT WEEK: $75,000

SPONSORSHIP OF A SECOND NEWPORT BEACH RESTAURANT WEEK IN FALL 2009: $75,000

TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM: $198,100

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].