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City budget office briefs committee on annual encumbrance carryover process and timing
Summary
Jessica Stratton of the budget office explained the annual encumbrance carryover process that moves unspent but obligated FY2024 funds into FY2025, said the five‑year average carryover is about $141 million across all funds and that the package of SBO adjustments will be amended with final data ahead of the council vote.
Jessica Stratton, presenting for the budget office, told the Finance & Administration Committee that the annual encumbrance carryover moves expenditure authority for goods or services encumbered but unspent in the prior fiscal year into the current fiscal year.
Stratton said the process began with close of accounts payable period 13 on Jan. 17 and produced a large data set of roughly 2,000 rows the accountants scrubbed before submitting recommendations to the budget office. As of the morning of the meeting, she said, she had approved 43 of 86 submissions and expected to complete the review in roughly two weeks; once complete she will amend the placeholder SBO with the actual data so the council can see the dollars.
To convey scale, Stratton said the five‑year average for encumbrance carryover has been "about $141,000,000 for all funds citywide." She also said the general-fund portion "has been averaging about 3.3," and that for 2025 she expected that portion "to be like 1.4 probably for 2025" (phrasing used by the presenter). Stratton said encumbrance carryovers are generally for items already ordered or obligated — grants with multi‑year periods, multi‑year capital projects and goods that had been ordered but not received by Dec. 31.
Stratton said the budget office reviews prior-year expenses and encumbrances to avoid carrying forward budget that does not actually exist. She noted that some funds (for example, ARPA) cannot spend against encumbered amounts until the SBO is approved, and said the office was working to finish its analysis and return an amended SBO in time for a council vote later that month.
Committee members asked how carryovers interact with year‑end budget outcomes; Stratton and budget staff said they factor actual expenses into carryover recommendations and try to avoid carrying forward amounts that would exceed available resources.
No formal committee action was recorded on the carryover briefing at the meeting; staff said they would return with the amended SBO and the full dollar amounts once the review completed.
