Town of Oro Valley Director of Finance, Stacey Lemos, presented a mid-year finance report to the Oro ValleyTown Council last Wednesday. Overall, revenues are a bit above budget while spending is below budget.
General Fund:
The general fund is projected, by year end, to have revenues that are $500,000 more than planned. This is due to an increase in estimated local sales taxes and construction residential and commercial permit fees; and because of the two point increase in utility tax.
Greg Caton, Oro Valley Town Manager, noted that "We have seen a pickup in activity…We continue to see strong growth in that sector." in explaining the increase over plan in construction permit activity.
General fund expenditures are projected to be $430,000 less than plan because of unfilled position vacancies.
In observing that the general fund fiscal situation is in order, Council Member Hornat noted that: "We did a lot of things, and I think that Mr. Musolf would agree with that, to reduce our costs" from 2010. At that time, projected revenues were 7% below budget and there was a projected deficit of over $1 million.
Highway Fund
Highway funds come from the construction sales tax and rom state shared highway user revenues. Construction sales tax revenues are over budget while highway user revenues are on budget. Overall, highway fund revenues are over budget by 4.9%.
Highway spending is estimated to be on budget. Spending on pavement preservation is bering held at $1 million. The result is a fund balance decrease of $139,000 this year which is close to planned.
Bed Tax
This is the fund that is paying for the Aquatic Center.
Bed tax revenues are projected to be on budget. These are trending 7% higher than last year. Expenditures are estimated to be under budget by $75,000. This is because the savings from a discontinued TREO contract and savings from unfilled positions. Overall, the bed tax fund is projected to decrease by $104,000 by year-end. This is less than the $178,000 planned decrease.
Council Member Zinkin asked where estimated revenues from Aquatic Center events were included in the budget. "We did not include any expectations for that. So any additional revenues received from that activity will be over and above what we assumed in the budget," Lemos noted. Lemos also went on to note that they did include estimated cost increases from the new aquatic center in the budget.
Water Utility
"Both of our utility funds are showing strong budget performance," Lemos observed. "Revenues of the water utility funded trending right on budget. We are seeing a little bit of a slightly below budget situation in our water sales as our customers continue to conserve water. But we expect to end the year on target." Water utility expenditures are estimated to be under budget a year and by 3% or $438,000 due to capital outlay savings.
Stormwater Utility Fund
Lemos noted: "We're trending right on target with our Storm Water Utility Fee Revenue."
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2 comments:
It seems to me that we really did not need the added 2% utility tax and some council member should move to have it rescinded.
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During this segment of the meeting, resident Bill Adler spoke about the need for Oro Valley develop a sustainable revenue stream. Thus, the town could then enter into even more spending, which Bill fills the town needs to do.
Of course, Bill is talking about a property tax.
Council Member Hornat spoke probably about the utility tax in that it stabilized down revenue sources.
So, Chuck, I doubt you'll ever see a reduction in the utility tax. Even though it had a sunset it will live in perpetuity.
As President Reagan once said, the only things that live in perpetuities are government programs.
He's right about that.
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