Page one of the highlights for the proposed city of Beaumont budget that begins Oct. 1 starts off with underreporting $40 million in collected tax revenue for 2023 – skewing fund balance numbers for the three years of required budgetary reporting mandated by the city charter. The budget, as provided by City Manager Kenneth Williams and the finance department with an Aug. 16 date-stamp to meet deadline, was unaltered for public review as of Sept. 11.
Perusing the 200-plus pages of supporting documents comprising the budget reveals even more errors, omissions and out-right “budget only” padding, while at the same time cutting funds allotted for the fire department and collecting millions in added fees passed on to residents.
From the front page of the copy-and-paste budget allegedly intended to detail the finances of the municipality, to the last page that describes a roughly 50% decline in monies put aside for public notices and a 100% increase in funding for “lobbying,” paying attention to detail reveals an array of missteps in the stated fiscal matters of Jefferson County’s hub city.
Aside from running with an alleged $47 million deficit from 2023 when balancing the “2025” budget, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 31, 2025, the finance department reports fanciful anticipated revenues recouped for the coming year – including $1 million more recovered in licenses and fees than this year, and $1 million more in “service charges” than what was collected in 2024. All told, as expressed on page 17 of the budget, Beaumont’s finance department expects – allegedly – an additional $10 million in revenues over what the city recorded in 2024.
With all that extra cash, as also expressed in the budget, on page 19, the city plans to increase the wages of the budget-makers and other department staffers, as well as increase the budget of departments including parks and community development. Notably, some departments will see decreases in their operating budgets, including the fire department.
In a summary of expenditures, the fire department is estimated to have utilized $45,059,013 to provide services in 2024. For 2025, beginning Oct. 1, the fire services department will only have a budget of $43,382,730 with which to work – nearly $2 million short of what was spent in 2024. According to city communication, the fire department exceeded its 2024 budget by $2 million, which was used for overtime wages in a department understaffed, the union added.
Replete with inaccuracies, nearly every department has line items that don’t line up. As an example, in the solid waste statement of revenues and expenditures on page 164, the finance gurus at the city miscalculated anticipated revenue in 2024 by more than $1 million. While it could have been “an honest mistake,” the 2023 revenues were on par with what was actually received in 2024. Effectively, the finance department reduced the anticipated revenue by $1 million for the purpose of presenting the 2024 budget, but – no surprise – actually collected the same amount as recorded in 2023. The result: an extra $1 million unaccounted for and available for one of the many “transfers” that result in big numbers being utilized with zero oversight from a budgetary standpoint.
Added to the fact, as shown on page 114 of the budget, that the finance department is double counting “one-time” transfers from prior years as 2025 revenue to result in a $3 million overstatement in anticipated revenue, Beaumont’s budget is expected to further deplete the already dwindling fund balance that the new city manager has been digging into since being hired.
In the financial policies statement included in the budget, the city manager is explained to be within his right to propose a budget that spends more money than the city expects to take in.
“Under this policy,” the budgeting documents entails, “it is allowable for total expenditures to exceed revenues in a given year.”
“Budget only” line items, such as the $765,600 finance administration expense charged to the “Miscellaneous Expendable Trust Fund,” as noted on page 196, show no corresponding line item to attach the payment. There is no 2025 budget for the same function reported.
For 2025, much of the anticipated extra money to be portioned out at the discretion of the city manager will come from added fees for those living in the city. Just as the burden put on taxpayers greeted with surprise billing for “forgotten” garbage service for unnamed months that had gone unnoticed for the better part of a year, those that have made Beaumont their home will once again shoulder the cost of paying for whatever shortfalls there may be.
Ensuring that all residents of the city see a bigger chunk of their income allocated to water bills, administration is recommending a 4% increase in water rates, an 8% increase in sewer rates and a $1.75 upcharge to garbage collection rates for all inhabitants. Additionally, the enhanced billing is to be placed on users as soon as possible, taking effect Oct. 1 unless the Beaumont City Council agrees to adopt an alternate budget prior to that date.
As explained in Williams’ letter to the council in presenting the proposed 2025 budget, if council fails to adopt a budget, then the provided budget will be considered approved anyway.
“The increase is needed,” Williams advised, “to maintain a healthy fund balance.”
The finance department, the same staffers bringing Beaumont leaders a budget that neglected to account for $40 million in tax collection, is also the department in charge of water customer service. As detailed on page 139 of the mammoth document, although water customer service is funded by the water utilities fund, the service is administered by the finance department.
Water customer service should resonate with any water utility customer billed in 2024, as every meter recording consumption of Beaumont’s brown H2O was gifted a bonus bill this past year for alleged missed billing at some past undisclosed date. Some Beaumonters report getting two such extra bills.
The added bills could be the reason for the grossly understated anticipated revenues collected for water billing in 2024. As presented for budgeting purposes in 2024, the finance department/water customer service anticipated $59,020,000 in water fund revenue for 2024, roughly the same as collected in 2023. Instead, the city now reports an estimated $65,974,562 collected for 2024 – nearly $7 million in excess of the anticipated revenue. For 2025, the budget bearers plan on recouping $64.7 million for water services – $5 million more than what Beaumonters paid for water in 2023.
Relief, Williams argues, is given in a few cent tax decrease allotted to Beaumont property owners. However, even with the tax rate decrease, as explained on page 12, the same taxpayers will still pay over $1 million more in taxes for 2025.
“I would like to recognize the hard work of Cheryl Ray, CFO; Duncan Brown, Assistant CFO; Amy Schmidt, Budget Officer; and Bridget Evick, Deputy Controller, for their efforts in preparing this budgetary document,” Williams wrote in his portion of the budget under review.
According to the city charter, the City Manager “shall strictly enforce the provisions of the budget as specified in the ordinance adopting the budget. He shall not authorize or approve any expenditure unless an appropriation has been made in the budget ordinance adopting the budget, and there is an available unencumbered balance of the appropriation sufficient to pay the liability to be incurred.
“No officer or employee of the city shall place any orders or make any purchase except for the purposes authorized in the budget. Any officer or employee placing such orders or making such purchases may be held personally liable for same.”