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Finance report: Winchester City close to budget targets; stormwater bond proceeds remain to spend
Summary
City finance staff reported fiscal-year collections largely on track, building permits up while stormwater shows large bond proceeds earmarked for projects; staff expects to fully fund a new revenue stabilization reserve.
Winchester City finance staff reported that the city is close to meeting fiscal 2025 budget targets and described several fund-level details, including large stormwater bond proceeds, recent building-permit activity and software-led reporting changes for business-license revenues.
Jerre, a finance staff member presenting the May 31, 2025 report, told the committee the city is within "$30,000 of the budget currently" for personal property collections and that real-estate and meals-tax revenues are performing strongly. Jerre said building-permit activity is up because of four major projects, including Cameron Square (work on the former Winchester Tower) and Valley Health projects; staff has seen a permit pulled for the Cameron Square development.
Jerre explained that the stormwater fund shows large expenditures compared with revenue because the city received bond proceeds earlier and is spending them down; the stormwater fund had about $10,300,000 in bond proceeds left to spend. He said utility revenues are slightly down compared with last year but expected to meet budget. Jerre noted a software transition: new business-license software (Affinity/Aveniti) currently collapses multiple business-license revenue codes into one general ledger line for reporting, and staff are working with the vendor to restore detailed reporting in the general ledger even though details remain accessible from the vendor's system.
On fund balance, Jerre told the committee he expects to meet the newly adopted revenue stabilization goal and to end the year with roughly $2.3 million available for the stabilization fund while still keeping the city's fund balance above policy minimums. He said the audit process has started and the comprehensive annual financial report work will continue toward a December release.
Committee members asked about several line items including police overtime billing delays, JJC billing to Frederick County (city bills Frederick County for about 50% of costs), and repair-and-maintenance cycles that can cause year-to-year variance. Jerre said staff will return with a final FY25 report after the 45-day closeout and audit procedures.
Next steps: staff will continue audit work and return with a final fiscal-year report in the fall. Jerre said the comprehensive financial statements should be available by December 1.
