Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutFY 2022 Budget Presentation (Office of Economic Development)THE OFFICE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FY 2022 BUDGET AND OPERATIONS SYNOPSIS Nalani K. Kaauwai Brun Director Department: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Fund: GENERAL FUND 1. FY 2021 to FY 2022 BUDGET COMPARSION FY 2021 FY 2022 $ + / - % + / - Salary and Wages 620,219 606,227 -13,992 -2.3% Benefits 398,674 392,318 -6,3S6 -1.6% Utilities 0 0 0 0.0% Vehicle/Equip, Lease 0 0 0 0.0% Operations 1,S97,230 1,S49,272 -47,9S8 -3.0% 2,616,123 2,S47,817 -68,306 -2.6% FY 2021 Operating Budget ■ Salary and Wages 24% ■ Benefits 6196 15% Utilities a ■ Vehicle/Equip, { Lease FY 2022 Operating Budget ■ Salary and Wages 24% ■ Benefits 6196 15% 1 utilities �06 ■ VehiclejEquip, Lease 1 2. MAJOR CHANGES AND/OR VARIANCES IN OPERATIONS BUDGET Positions: We do not have any new positions in our budget. Increases: The largest increases that were offset by other cost cutting measures are: (50,000) Funding of the Stewardship Program to support organizations caring for our wahipana around the island. This occurs approximately every three years. This allows us to support those orgs with fixing tools, providing supplies and supporting volunteer efforts. (75,000) to complete a Kaua'i Agricultural Plan following the completion of the update of our Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy which should complete in the fall. (75,000) increase for the Kauai Visitors Bureau who is tasked with marketing our island and has lost most of their HTA funding to do so. These funds will help us recover more quickly from the pandemic's effects on our economy. (25,000) for workforce training to help retrain displaced workers. (23,000) for additional tourism product development funds to utilize as an HTA match which would fund programs focused on more effectively managing tourism. DECREASES: Overall we worked diligently to trim our budget as much as possible, mostly in the area of travel, and focused our funding on recovery and diversification efforts. 3. OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES We have no operational challenges. 4. TOP 3 OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM FY 2021 TEAMWORK: OED is shifting the way we work by creating internal teams to take on different economic sectors. This gives us more depth of experience and helps to create additional partnerships for all of our projects. Internal Teams assists us with staying creative and keeps us active in the "what if" mindset which is a necessity in economic development. In addition, over the last year, staff has been shifting duties so that everyone is using their talents at a maximum level while learning new skills daily. FEDERAL PROGRAMS: OED was able to shift gears and support the administration in efforts to distribute support programs to businesses and the community utilizing CARES funds. We were able to create Kaua'i Economic Recovery Strategy Teams in many sector areas whose ideas helped us to formulate programs that we could quickly dispense when federal funding was made available. INNOVATIONS GRANTS: Due to the pandemic, many of the typical programs we would have funded were unable to take place and we knew there were a lot of local problems to solve that were highlighted by the pandemic. We ended up pooling all of our sector grant funds and created a new Request for Proposals and process that reached out into the community for innovative ideas to solve local problems. In addition we instituted an online community outreach piece that allowed the public to weigh in on the projects that applied to us for funding. This information was fed to the Selection Committee providing up to 10% of the total score for each project. It was well received by the public which showed 1,445 registered users, 3,441 "opinions"and 679 written comments. We are calling that an outreach win.