5 replies to this topic

[Steve Heard]

Things are looking up 'round here. 

 

From the City Newsletter:

 

For the second year in a row, the City ended the fiscal year with a surplus that was 

added to unrestricted cash reserves. At last week’s City Council meeting, Chief 

Financial Officer Jim Francis reported a Fiscal Year 2012-13 surplus of $640,930. He 

noted that the surplus was primarily the result of expenditures under budget, rather than 

improving economic conditions.

 

Prior to the recession, the City had approximately $16 million, or 26 percent of 

expenditures, in reserves. Currently, reserves total a little more than $5 million, or 7.8 

percent of expenditures.

 

“Because we had ample reserves in the bank when the recession hit, we were able to 

minimize the impact on services to our community,” says City Manager Evert Palmer. 

“We used $12 million from our reserves during those lean years, and that’s exactly what 

those reserves were intended for. Now that the economy is improving, our goal is to 

continue growing our unrestricted fund balance to 15 percent of expenditures so we will 

be prepared for unexpected expenses in coming years.” 

 

Other highlights from the FY 2012-13 Fourth Quarter Financial Report:

 

 General Fund revenues totaled almost $65.8 million, up almost $317,000 over 

FY 12, but $76,000 less than expected. Sales tax increased almost 12 percent. 

Housing sales, prices and new home construction were up, and 73 percent of 

existing home sales exceeded assessed values. Francis projects an increase in 

property tax revenues next year. 

 

 General Fund expenditures of approximately $65 million were down almost 

$290,000 from FY 12, and $717,000 less than budgeted. Expenditures in all 

departments were closely monitored and most vacant positions were not filled. 

 

 The Utility funds all ended the year with operating revenues exceeding operating 

costs and adding to their cash balances.

 

 No new debt was issued in FY 13 and the Sports Complex debt was paid off. 

“All in all, the last fiscal year should be looked at as a financially successful year that 

produced some desirable outcomes, improved our financial position, and positioned us 

well for the coming year,” says Palmer. “We will continue fiscal prudence as we 

manage our current budget to ensure our revenues and expenditures are balanced.”

 

[Dave Burrell]

That's good to hear - thanks Steve

[firemedic238]

This is great news!  Now let put the cash back into city services that were cut say Fire, Police and Parks.

 

 

[maestro]

This is great news!  Now let put the cash back into city services that were cut say Fire, Police and Parks.

 

 

firemedic 238, you'll never convince the cheerleaders.

 

why didn't you mention all the jobs that were cut in order to do this "surplus"?

 

what about all the deferred maintenance of infrastructure which is crumbling and inadequate.  

 

And that old favorite, where is the $21 million in the general fund coming from?

 

since property taxes brought in $17.7 mil and sales taxes brought in 17.5 mil,

what is the source of the general fund money -- since the utilities monies cannot be raided for cash since Prop 218.

 

are the fire stations open and staffed all the time?

[MikeinFolsom]

As far as maintenance goes, I doubt the city will ever be able to catch up with what they let fall into disrepair.  In some instances, they're probably better off just purchasing new and starting over.  But hey, it all looks good on paper......right?  It's not what you did, it's what you tell people you did. 

[nowtherestofthestory]

On the surface this sounds good, but one should look beyond the surface.

 

While its true the city hasn't officially gone further in debt by borrowing more money, yet. There will be some large bonds sold for developing south of 50.

 

The City's employees are paying 100% of the City's contribution rate towards their pensions, however the city is only contributing 35% of the projected costs to provide for these pensions. Therefore, the City's unfunded pension obligations are growing faster than what they are claiming what their reserves are growing at. Its very misleading to be making the claims they are when the unfunded pension obligations aren't on the books.

 

A good question to be asking is, where did the city spend the surplus during these times? If we go back and look at budgets toward the mid/later part of last decade, we will find that the Planning and/or Community Development departments were almost $9 million over budget. In theory these departments should have zero balances as they are supposed to be supported by development fees.

 

The obvious next question would be, What were these Departments doing spending all this time planning for without getting the appropriate fees to reimburse the City for their time?

 

Another factor to consider in all this is the City is short one fire station to serve Empire Ranch/Parkway area. The City has collected enough impact fees to build this station, but cant afford to staff it and pay for the costs of going forward with developing south of 50.

 

The Council has made a policy choice of not ensuring our entire City has the same adequate response times for public safety for some areas of the community, so they can claim they are replenishing reserves in an election year.