The Budget & Finance Committee met on April 16, 2025, at 5:30 PM in City Council Chambers. The committee reviewed year-to-date budget performance through February 28, 2025, received a summary of community budget outreach conducted in August 2024 following the failure of Proposition 1, and discussed improvements to the council budget book. No votes were taken; the meeting was informational and deliberative.
About year to date budget performance. Second is a budget community outreach review. And then we'll have a discussion on a small discussion on the council budget book. So we'll begin with a presentation. Welcome, Heidi. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. All right. Heidi Berlantez Finance Director joining me is Jamie Lee Graves, our assistant finance director. This evening we'll begin with a review of our year-to-date budget performance through February 28th. And this is followed by a recap of the budget community community outreach that was conducted in August of 2024. So at this time, I will turn it over to Jamie Lee and she'll go over the year-to-date budget performance. Good evening, Mayor and Council. First, we will start with the general government revenues. Oh, our revenue forecasts or how much of the revenue budget is collected each month is based on historical actuals. As of February, general government revenues exceeded projections by approximately 1.2 million dollars, with total revenues for the month reaching just over $983,000. This increase is largely attributed to the timing of operating transfers in, along with miscellaneous revenues, business and occupation tax, and sales tax are also contributing to the positive year-to-date performance. As noted in the monthly financial report, this yearly increase should not yet be interpreted as a reoccurring trend as revenue collections can vary significantly throughout the year due to timing as well as seasonal factors. Starting with one of our primary revenue sources, the business and occupation tax receipts through February reflect an increase of 360,546 or 8.3%. As shown in the accompanying graph, the city typically receives its largest BNO payments on a quarterly basis in January, April, July, and October. Turning to sales tax revenues, collections are currently $17,389 or 0.3% above budget. It's important to note that sales tax receipts are received on a two-month leg. So February collections represent economic activity from December. Next, we'll take a look at general government expenditures. Similar to revenues, our expenditure forecast representing how much of the budget we expect to spend each month is based on historical actuals. This approach helps us develop a more accurate projection by capturing long-term trends and seasonal patterns. However, monthly expenditures can vary due to the timing of specific activities, such as construction projects, which are more common during the summer months. Certain expenses may also be delayed, resulting in variances when compared to the budget. One example is the collective bargaining agreement recently approved by council on March 18th. As a result, we anticipate an increase in expenditures as retroactive pay adjustments are processed for affected employees in 2025. These fluctuations are expected and factored into our broader financial planning framework. It's also worth noting that departments have demonstrated strong fiscal discipline with spending remaining below budget. We've emphasized the importance of responsible financial stewardship, and we're pleased with the proactive efforts our teams have made to manage resources effectively. Before passing it off to Heidi, are there any questions on the February report? Questions? Councilor Martu. I have one. Can you explain BO tax? I had a somebody ask me this question, and I didn't really know. Say uh an apartment building that's somebody who has a lot of apartment buildings and they rent that out. Do they pay BO tax? Is that because that's their business? Or is that uh no? Uh lease revenues. Yeah. Um, I would have to look specifically for releasing. Um, mainly we see it more in kind of the industry related. Um, so it would be um analysis would need to be done with apartments as an example and what industry that would fall under. But yeah, generally it's kind of within our retail construction manufacturing and wholesale. So that's kind of what I thought, but I was it was a question that I I had never really thought about. I had no idea.