Ona Braus, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the Assembly Budget and Finance Committee that general government spending through June 30 stood at 45% while the fiscal year was 51.5% complete, signaling an approximately 6‑percent underspend at midyear.

“We are 51.5% through the fiscal year… the overall total spend for general government, through June 30 is 45%,” Braus said while presenting the budget‑to‑actuals report.

Braus explained that labor and non‑labor patterns differ: labor spending is at roughly 47% while non‑labor is at about 43% of budgeted levels. She and assembly members attributed much of the underspend to vacancies in smaller departments.

Assembly member Zach Johnson asked whether the lower labor spend reflected vacancies or a missing paycheck in the data. Braus said it was a mix and noted that small departments with only a few positions show larger percentage swings when a vacancy occurs. She added that some overtime overages are concentrated in public safety and in departments with staffing shortfalls.

“The overtime breakdown is a little gnarly as it usually is,” Braus said. She pointed to police and fire overtime driven by unfilled authorized positions and said the labor spending bucket covers both regular payroll and overtime, so higher overtime can coexist with lower overall payroll spend while remaining within the same labor appropriation.

Braus also reviewed several specific funds and program areas: travel spending is $275,000 total and 50% spent; alcohol‑tax funds include a mix of immediate grants and internal operational charges; a few homelessness initiatives rolled over from 2024 and currently show little or no 2025 spending on the city’s reporting but are active in program delivery, and the ACE fund (early education and child care, funded from marijuana tax revenues) is in its first operational year and is disbursing grants.

On homelessness items, Braus told the committee that three programs—identified in materials as continuation items—were carried into 2025 because they had not spent their full 2024 allocations. “They were held over and then, continued in 2025,” she said and offered to follow up with departmental staff on status for particular pilots.

Braus and committee leaders said the assembly will provide budget priorities to administration in advance of the 120‑day memo (noted on the OMB calendar as Aug. 29) and that the mayor’s proposed budget is scheduled for delivery Oct. 1 with the formal assembly process then running through public hearings, amendments and a final vote in November.

The committee did not take formal action on the midyear report; members asked staff for continued monitoring of overtime, vacancies and the status of rollover program spending.