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<br />5 16- 2 <br /> <br />General Fund Hiahlights <br /> <br />Revenues <br />Total general fund revenues were $65 million, or 0.7%, over FY 2002/03 actual revenues <br />and $2.3 million, or 3.6%, above the amount budgeted for FY 2003/04. The increase over <br />the prior year is primarily attributable to higher property taxes of $1.5 million and increased <br />sales taxes of $0.6 million. The revenue highlights for FY 2003/04 are: <br /> <br />. Property taxes (excluding supplemental taxes and prior years taxes) increased 7.6%, or <br />$1.3 million from $17.2 million to $18.5 million primarily due to a one-time refund from <br />the County of San Mateo for over-collected ERAF deductions; <br />. Transient occupancy revenues increased 18.3%, or by $0.3 million from $1.5 million to <br />$1.8 million. This is primarily due to the voter-approved increase in the transient <br />occupancy tax rate from 8% to 10% in December 2003; <br />. Building permt revenues increased 13%, or by $100,000 from $725,000 to $825,000; <br />. 7% increase in utility users' taxes from $7 million to $7.5 million; <br />. Sales taxes increased 4.3%, or $0.6 million from $15.1 million to $15.7 million. <br /> <br />The City continues to rely very heavily upon property and sales taxes (exclusive of <br />proposition 172 sales tax revenue) as almost 56% of the general fund revenue is derived <br />from these two sources. Sales taxes provided 24% of general fund revenue while property <br />taxes accounted for 31 % of general fund revenue. <br /> <br />Expenditures <br />Total general fund expenditures for FY 2003/04 were $60 million. This was $541,211 <br />(+0.9%) over the amount expended in FY 2002/03. <br /> <br />Employee costs continue to represent the highest single source of expenditures <br />accounting for 68.7% of all general fund expenditures. <br /> <br />Transfers <br />Each year funds are transferred out of the general fund to support the traffic safety fund. <br />.. For FY 2003/04, $1,010,130 was transferred to the traffic safety fund. Also, an amount <br />equal to the utility users' tax revenue less the Public Finance Authority bond payment is <br />transferred to the capital outlay fund. This transfer amounted to $5.1 million in FY <br />2003/04. <br /> <br />Fund Balance <br />Expenditures and other uses exceeded revenues and other sources by $506,844. In FY <br />1999/00, the Council adopted a Finance Committee recommendation to maintain this <br />amount between 15% and 20% of estimated revenues. Applying this formula (using FY <br />2004/05 estimated revenues) leaves approximately $6.2 million in excess fund balance. <br />With the slow recovery from the downturn in the local economy staff recommends that <br />these funds be retained in the general fund to be used to cover the revenue/expenditure <br />gap until our revenues fully recover. <br /> <br />2 <br />