In 1997 the Council entered into a budget limitation agreement with Bonneville that resulted in approximately $5 million of savings between Fiscal Year 1998 and Fiscal Year 2001. Actions taken to accomplish these savings included reductions in force, elimination of vacant FTEs, reducing travel costs, slashing contract funding, cutting administrative costs and curtailing lower-priority activities.
In the current Bonneville Power Administration rate period (Fiscal Year 2003 - Fiscal Year 2006), the Council again made a commitment to exercise fiscal restraint in developing its budget. In light of Bonneville's financial condition, the Council agreed to submit current level-of-service budgets capped at 2 percent annual growth. This will save another $1.1 million over the rate period. Additionally, we are freezing the number of FTEs in the Council budget while continuing to undertake additional work and responsibilities in the region, particularly in fish and wildlife recovery efforts.
These proposed budgets reflect current levels for staffing. The Council's Fiscal Year 2006 revised budget of $8,700,000 is $8,000 higher (0.09 percent) than the current year 2005 budget of $8,692,000. This small increase represents the Council's attempt to absorb inflationary effects on personal services costs by delaying some contracting and temporarily decreasing some other operating costs. The proposed Fiscal Year 2007 budget of $9,085,000 is $385,000 higher (4.4 percent) than the revised Fiscal Year 2006 budget, reflecting the inflationary effect on personal services costs, and modest increases in contracting and other operating expenses.
This budget was adopted at the July 12-14, 2005 Council meeting.
