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Roswell CFO reports midyear surplus; parking revenue reduction won’t erase projected year‑end surplus, officials say
Summary
City finance staff reported revenues and expenditures ahead of budget through second quarter, explained a conservative forecast that absorbs recent parking policy changes and reiterated a AAA bond rating on recent borrowing.
City Chief Financial Officer Bill Gottschall told the Roswell City Council on Aug. 11 that the city’s second‑quarter financial results are ahead of plan and that staff expect to close the calendar year in a surplus despite changes to the parking policy.
Gottschall said year‑to‑date revenues are about $1.6 million ahead of budget, driven by roughly $1 million in property tax collections and about $500,000 in sales and use taxes. On the expenditure side, he said departments have managed payroll and operating costs tightly; net, the city is about $2.8 million above budget through the six‑month mark.
Council and staff discussed a revised parking policy that reduced the originally estimated $2.2 million in parking revenue by roughly 85 percent for the near term. Gottschall and councilmembers emphasized that the policy change also avoids about $1.1 million in direct implementation costs the city would have incurred, and they still expect to collect roughly 15 percent of the original estimate — an amount Gottschall estimated at about $300,000 in the current year under less‑intensive enforcement.
Gottschall said the finance office has built contingencies into forecasts to account for economic uncertainty, including possible second‑half sales‑tax softening. He described an evolving forecasting process with a risk assessment layer to improve accuracy month to month.
On borrowing and credit, Gottschall reported that Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s affirmed the city’s AAA rating for the recent general‑obligation offering; he characterized that rating as a top‑tier credit score for a city of Roswell’s size and attributed it to steady financial statements, increased unrestricted fund balances and continued attention to liquidity. In response to council questions, Gottschall said unrestricted fund balance and unrestricted cash are the primary liquidity measures the office watches; he noted Roswell’s unrestricted fund balance is higher today than in 2017 and that the city has three months of spending protected by reserves under current policy.
Councilmembers asked for and received clarification on restricted versus unrestricted cash, the timing of property tax receipts (which shifted in the fiscal year change), and the treatment of parking revenues in the forecast. The council did not take legislative action on this item; staff said more detailed monthly reports and the third‑quarter update will follow.
