Discussion:
Each year the City's General Fund is reviewed as part of the closing process as we near the fieldwork portion of our annual audit.
The General Fund has an estimated unassigned fund balance of $17,673,211 as of December 31, 2022. At this time it is an estimate only, because it is unaudited. The fieldwork portion of our audit begins on April 17. It is not anticipated that there will be any changes to the fund balance. Based on the policy of maintaining a 50 percent fund balance (of budgeted expenditures), the General Fund will end the year with a $426,000 surplus.
In the past, any excess fund balance has been directed towards one-time events such as capital improvements. Staff is requesting a General Fund transfer of $226,000 to the 2022A GO Improvement Bond Fund and the use of $200,000 for SandVenture, respectively.
The $226,000 transfer to the 2022A GO Improvement Bond fund will effectively allow the City to reduce the 2024 debt service tax levy by an equivalent amount. The debt service levy was reduced similarly in 2023 by the transfer of $200,000 from the Local Projects Fund during that budget process.
The $200,000 SandVenture allocation will be designated to eliminate any operating subsidy required by SandVenture operations during the construction of improvements. For 2024 budgeting purposes, any budgeted operating deficit will be supplanted by these funds. Effectively this will eliminate any operational subsidy from the 2024 property tax levy.