The City of Lake Forest Park’s budget committee heard an overview of the city’s first-quarter dashboard on April 17, with staff saying timing of large annual invoices — particularly insurance — and property tax receipts account for much of the early visual warnings.

Director Bond told the committee the biennial budget runs from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2026, and that several departments look elevated in the first quarter because annual bills arrived in January. “It’s insurance. It’s insurance,” Director Bond said, summing the primary driver of many early yellow indicators on the dashboards.

Bond said departments often show higher percentages in January because large, annual costs (for example, the city’s insurance invoice) are paid at the start of the biennium; operating spending by departments must be judged against a 12.5% first-quarter benchmark for a two-year budget. Bond also noted quarterly invoicing patterns — for example, dispatch invoices that can produce 25% results when prepayments or multiple quarters are processed early — and said staff will re-examine reports where line-item budgets or display values were incorrect.

On the revenue side, Bond said real estate excise tax collections and sales tax receipts arrived stronger than anticipated in the first quarter, while property tax and surface-water revenues lag because those receipts typically post in April and May. She said the general fund budget for the two-year period is roughly $26 million and that year-to-date general fund receipts through March were about $2.5 million (roughly 10 percent of the biennial budget), although she flagged a Tableau display rendering that showed numbers in millions and said staff will correct that display for clarity.

Committee members asked for a separate, deeper dive on the traffic safety fund and traffic-camera line items later in the agenda; Bond said staff will return with corrected budgets and a more detailed slide on revenues and expenditures for that fund. Bond also proposed using a budget amendment to “true up” capital project budgets instead of routinely carrying unspent amounts forward, citing an RCW that allows cities to carry forward appropriations but suggesting a cleaner financial presentation through amendment.

The committee did not take formal budget decisions during the overview but directed staff to correct dashboard displays, confirm dispatch and other invoice timing, and bring more detailed materials when the traffic safety fund and capital budgets are discussed.