$5.2M budget adjustments OK'd
Woodland released its midyear budget update and authorized amendments totaling $5.2 million to support various projects across several departments.
The update and adjustment recommendations were presented to the City Council during its Tuesday evening meeting where city staff explained the budget adjustments. The city requested supplemental budget appropriations in the fiscal year 2024/24 budget totaling $5,246,284 funded through a mixture of new or increased revenues, available dedicated reserves or the use of unassigned fund balances from various funds.
However, city staff expects $729,646 in offsetting revenue making the total net impact roughly $4.5 million.
“On June 20, 2023, the City Council adopted the fiscal year 2023/24 budget totaling $206,847,391 in appropriations in support of citywide operations, capital improvement projects and expenses related to the Woodland Finance Authority and the Successor Agency to the Woodland Redevelopment Agency,” the city staff report stated. “During the first six months of FY 23.24, the City Council approved $73,252,175 in budget amendments, which included prior fiscal year carryovers (operations and capital projects), capital improvement additional appropriations and other staff requested budget augmentations and corrections.”
According to the report, revenues across all city funds total $67.5 million representing 34% of the budget through Dec. 31, 2023.
“Although we are halfway through the fiscal year, many of the city's large revenue sources such as property taxes and other assessments are not received until the second half of the year,” the report noted.
On the contrary, expenditures for all funds total $93.5 million, or 33% of the amended budget, through the second quarter of the fiscal year.
General fund revenues total $13.1 million, or 20% of the
amended budget, with staff projections showing that revenues will exceed the amended budget by roughly $600,000.
The report noted that sales tax revenues overall are expected to fall short of the budget by $336,315 noting that included in this number are better than expected revenues from both Measure R and Measure F sales tax measures, which do not remain in the General Fund.
The local sales tax that remains and general fund revenues are projected to be under budget by nearly $700,000.
“Other revenue categories anticipated to exceed budget includes revenue from licenses and permits, franchise fees and reimbursements for fire strike teams,” the report added. “[Transient Occupancy Tax] revenues are projected to be under budget by close to $285,000.”
General fund expenditures total $26.5 million through the second quarter of the fiscal year with staff projecting the expenditures to end the year in excess of the amended budget by $239,265.
The report noted that this is because non-discretionary expenditures projected to exceed budget are due to continued increases in gas and electricity costs—primarily from several rate increases implemented by PG&E—and sales taxes related to Measures F and R since they are transferred out as expenses so the money can be spent in the respective funds in accordance with approved spending plans.
Councilman Tom Stallard noted after the presentation that while the council is used to hearing these numbers, he understands that this “must just seem like gobbledygook” to most Woodland citizens.
“This is an offer to any citizen who wants to get perhaps a little greater explanation or clarity… to sit down over coffee and have a chat,” Stallard welcomed during the council's Tuesday meeting. “Transparency is fundamental and we're not hiding behind any walls, our numbers are up there and we've managed to pull rabbits out of hats
pretty well given all the expectations people have of us, but we're not invulnerable to things going on in the larger society.”
Stallard used increased electricity rates to highlight this noting that PG&E's 20% rate increases has affected the city significantly.
“When PG&E increased their rates by 20%, we know what that means in our household bill,” he stressed.
The city saw a $1.2 million budget adjustment to address electricity cost increases alone.
“So that's what 10% to 20% means just for electricity utilization for our signals, for our community building, all of these things,” he added. “Anybody in our community that feels they need to get a better handle on this and wants help, I'm certainly happy to sit with them.”
Councilwoman Victoria Fernandez said that although the $5.2 million budget adjustments seems like a lot of money, it will allow residents to continue enjoying the benefits that come with funding the city to do the work it does.
“I hope that our sales revenues
are more optimistic than is in the current report… and that some of these numbers change so that we can make up the difference,” Fernandez argued. “I don't think we want to see any of our services cut or impact our government services.”
Kim McKinney, administrative services director for the city, noted during the
meeting that she and city staff will be back in a couple of weeks to discuss next year's budget and to go into even more detail regarding this year's budget.
The council voted unanimously to accept the presentation and accept the recommendation to make the mid-year budget adjustments totaling $5,246,284.