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Finance Committee reviews midyear budget report, cash position and tax collections
Summary
Finance staff presented budget-versus-actuals through December, reported reconciled FY24 records sent to auditors, a $5.5 million cash balance, partial draw on a $3 million TAN and improvements in tax-collection outreach.
Finance staff presented the fiscal-year-to-date budget-versus-actual report through December (the fiscal midyear) and briefed the Finance Committee on several finance items: audited reconciliation status for FY24, current cash balances, temporary note borrowings, payroll mapping issues and tax-collection efforts.
The staff member said the city has approximately $5.5 million in the bank as of the report date; that figure excluded recent restricted receipts for a loader and a vac truck. The staff member also said the city had a $3 million tax anticipation note (TAN) available and had drawn $2 million of it; the staff member said there was not an immediate need to draw the remaining $1 million.
On audit progress, staff said FY24 reconciliation is complete and audit materials have been submitted. The staff member said the city expects the auditors to have the files they need now, though that could change.
Committee members asked about payroll and overtime numbers for the fire department. Finance staff and other participants described mapping issues between department payroll tagging and the Paychex payroll system; as a result, some overtime and leave amounts have not mapped cleanly into the accounting system and require manual reconciliation. The staff member said the mapping problems may skew category-level percent-of-budget lines but that staff are working to reconcile and expect better visibility later in the budget season.
Tax-collection staff reported they are actively pursuing prior-year and current-year receivables. Sue McClain, the city’s tax collector, told the committee she is reaching out directly to taxpayers and is seeing positive responses; she said she can provide an aging schedule of outstanding receivables at the committee’s request.
Committee members asked for follow-up materials, including a more detailed aging report for prior-year personal property receivables, a summary of the proportion of taxes collected before and after liens in recent years, and a description of the collection process for accounts that proceed to liens or foreclosure. No formal committee vote was recorded on budget adoption or amendments at the meeting.
